Palma. The first challenge facing the new Balearic government is to prioritise tourism in its policy development, Marilen Pol the President of the Majorcan Hoteliers Federation said yesterday.
At the Change for Tourism conference held in Palma, Pol urged her colleagues in the industry to make good use of the profits they would have earned during this year's holiday season.
Amongst the audience of senior tourism industry figures at the conference was the government's Tourism Minister, Carlos Delgado, ex Mayor of Calvia.
Pol however recognised that this year's successful season had been less due to a successful marketing strategy than to external factors such as political turmoil in North Africa and the fact that hoteliers had held their prices down after deals struck with tour operators earlier in the year.
Pol pointed to the fact that profitability in the tourist industry in the Balearics has been steadily declining over the last decade and as a result, so has its contribution to the regional gross product. She claimed however that there was now time to correct the political mistakes of the past and recover the lead position that the Islands once enjoyed.
Pol said that the government could always be assured of the readiness of the hoteliers to invest for the betterment of the regional economy.
The conference took the form of a round table discussion and hoteliers took the opportunity to ask for the government's support in allowing them tax incentives for providing more job contracts and better working conditions.
Pol suggested that the tourist industry and the government should work jointly on marketing and promotion.
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