Promotion campaigns hit by shortage of funds

IBATUR, the Balearic Institute of Tourism, cannot collaborate with other organisations in promotional campaigns, as the previous coalition government left it with a deficit of six million euros. This was revealed yesterday by its manager, Juan Carlos Alía, who said that Ibatur found its “hands tied” with regard to collaboration because of this.
He also confirmed that Ibatur's budget “doesn't leave us much room to play with” when compared to other regions of Spain and “if out of the 12 million euros budget six million is a deficit figure”, it becomes “very difficult” to start any ground-breaking ventures or to launch high profile tourism promotion campaigns. Alía further pointed out that “when someone has a certain responsibility and you have a deficit, the thing you shouldn't do is make the deficit even larger”. In November, Parliament will approve the budget, he said, and he hoped “we should be left with sufficent funds to put our 2004 promotion campaign into action”. He added he would like to see a situation where, next year, “Ibatur can depend, at least, on the same budget as this year, and that the deficit be covered by other means so that we have more margin to play with in terms of planning”.