Limits: Who are the Partido Popular listening to?

His CV explains much about Sr. Bernal’s approach as tourism minister with a regional government run by the Partido Popular. The combination of tourism and planning shines through in a decree that the Andalusia government has recently approved in respect of holiday rental accommodation. A key aspect of this is that town halls will be given the authority for tourism management and planning so that they can establish maximum limits for lets.

In passing this decree (it is actually an amendment to previous law), Bernal explained that it was regulation which had to be addressed urgently. “It will be town halls who exercise the appropriate limits, taking account of objectives of social diversity, of not aggravating a lack of housing supply, of the need to balance and reduce rental prices, and of the situation in each neighbourhood or district.”

Bernal and Andalusia could well be a model that the new Balearic government follows. The combination of portfolios - tourism, culture and sport - is one that Marga Prohens has said she intends, assuming that her investiture does go ahead, while she has also spoken about delegation of responsibilities to town halls.

In Andalusia, Bernal is faced by a situation somewhat different to the Balearics in that there are several large cities. But tensions caused by the impact on residential accommodation are just the same, and responses to these tensions have come from PP tourism councillors, such as Jacobo Florido in Malaga, who has wanted formulas to tackle issues in the “most saturated” areas.

One might interpret the Andalusia decree as allowing high numbers of lets (and we’re mainly talking apartments here), but that isn’t the intent and nor will it be the practice. This is a PP administration specifically seeking to apply limits and even if Andalusia doesn’t act as a model for the Prohens government, the principles will be much the same.

Jaime Martínez, the new PP mayor of Palma, is one of the island’s better-qualified politicians when it comes to tourism. He was tourism minister from 2013 to 2015, having been the director-general for tourism from 2011 to 2013. It was widely suggested that the 2012 tourism law had his mark all over it, as much as that of the minister, Carlos Delgado, who had been his boss at Calvia town hall when Delgado was mayor. Martínez was responsible for tourism planning at Calvia. There are similarities between him and Bernal.

Martínez will be establishing an office for long-term and holiday rental. What this will eventually entail, taking into account existing regulation - Palma’s, the Council of Mallorca’s, the Balearic government - remains to be seen. But one thing can be sure, and that is that Mártinez, as will be the case with these other two institutions, will not be permitting some sort of free-for-all. Anything but, and the Andalusia talk of limits offers a hint why not, as do observations such as those of a PP councillor in Malaga.

The PP aren’t stupid. They know there is a housing crisis and they know that holiday rentals are a contributory factor to this. They can talk in liberal terms while at the same time they can talk of limits within the framework of tourism planning and management. They are aware of how society feels. Why have the PP said that they won’t axe the tourist tax? Not just because the revenue will come in handy. When Marga Prohens spoke before the elections about social acceptance, she had in mind the fact that Balearic society approves of the tourist tax, as has been repeatedly shown by opinion surveys.
The same goes for the housing-tourism nexus. And if the PP need any further persuasion, hoteliers will be on hand to remind them. In Valencia, where the PP will govern with Vox, the Hosbec hoteliers association, one of the most powerful in the country, has spoken about a “disaster” of excessive holiday letting that needs to be “put in order”. Hosbec was saying this before the elections and it is saying so again. Its president, Fede Fuster, argues that tourist holiday apartments in residential buildings “create civic problems of coexistence and a terrible tourismphobia”.

Gabriel Escarrer, the CEO of Meliá, is the president of the Exceltur alliance of leading companies in the tourism and travel industries. Exceltur has kept up a constant assault on the negatives of holiday letting, and it’s not about to let up. Escarrer may have hinted at concern that incoming administrations will undo what he feels has been work well done over recent years, but in so doing he has been sending out a clear enough message that the sector needs to be listened to.

And for the PP, one of their prize captures at the elections was Calvia, where the new mayor, Juan Amengual, has been talking about all-year tourism. To bring that about, Amengual will need powerful allies, and they don’t come any more powerful than Meliá, the company that was behind the transformation of Magalluf.