Calling for further public-private collaboration, of the type pursued in recent years, he was concerned that change will undo things that have been "done well", such as the Balearic tourism law that was passed in 2022. As reported by Hosteltur magazine, he feared that there will be "a lack of a long-term vision", arguing that laws need to endure in their essence and with only small modifications.
With Spain assuming the presidency of the European Union, Escarrer believed that this will represent an opportunity to regulate the "chaos" in respect of holiday rentals. Recognising that these are an important element in the tourism mix, he nevertheless insisted that there needs to be control in order to prevent "saturation" and threats to the identity of historic city centres. "Visitors no longer interact with residents, but with other tourists in an environment that risks becoming a theme park. This loss of identity will take its toll because it does not represent sustainable development of the tourism model."
7 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
What a horrible self interested fat cat bigot this guy is. Unbelievable.
The Escarrer family aren’t stupid, their main motivation is profit, whether it entails ruining the island’s coastline during the 70’s and 80’s or doing deals with communist Cuba during the 90’s and 2000’s. They were not in favour of the “eco” tax, both times approved by the socialists, but decided to grin and bare it, so as not to upset the lady in charge. In other words, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. On the other hand, Benidorm hasn’t done too badly with a right wing government ever since it’s inception as a tourist resort.
It's clear that sensibility and forward thinking aren't very popular with some, but I suspect he's more interested in sustaining the millions invested in upgrading the product and improve the character of the resorts they reside in, to attract a more desirable tourist demographic, which until now, has been increasingly successful. A return to a race to the bottom won't provide much security in that investment, nor help anyone. And frankly, his views are largely shared amongst the entire tourism industry here (including private lets). Except of course, for the bottom feeders.
Perhaps he has everything stitched up with the old government and is scared he will be found out by the new.
Interesting to see his interest and as is totally only viewed from his perspective which is to control the apartment rentals so that everyone has to go to a Hotel all this BS about affordable housing he could give a Hooot about people sleeping on the street ,we just keep going through this again and again .
And obviously protect his enterprise. Similar arguments from taxi drivers about Uber. The internet revolution can’t be stopped and is difficult to regulate as it has no territory. Just buyers and sellers. And a generation of users that are global consumers. Internal market controls will be difficult to enforce with such a entity.
Yes. I don't really care which side of the political spectrum any current government comes from, but I do expect some sanity. Some of the noise so far suggests they will repeal some well thought through regulations simply in the interest of spitting in the face of the previous tribe. That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in their sanity.