Congress Hall leads to boom in urban hotels

NOW that it is known that the construction of the Palma Congress Hall will start at the end of next year or early 2007, plans for building new urban hotels in the city, which will add to the existing varied offer, have been speeded up. It is hoped that the Congress Hall will convert Palma into one of the chief centres in the Mediterranean for congresses and conventions. This will have a direct effect on hotel occupancy in the city and will create more demand. There has been a boom in the construction of urban hotels in Palma over the past ten years, during which the offer has increased by 25 per cent.
The Balearic tourism ministry looks on this as positive, “because a new product has been created which did not exist in Palma before,” a spokesman said. He added that the hotels also added to the architectural interest of the city, particularly when they were in old buildings which had been refurbished and in the old part of the city. The next hotel to be opened will be the Continental, a four-star establishment with 52 rooms, at the end of the Calle Catalonia. It is owned by the Sastre family (Comercial Bordoy) and it takes its name from a hotel which once stood in Calle San Miguel, opposite the church, which disappeared in the mid 20th century. This hotel also belonged to the Sastre family. The new hotel has cost 24 million euros.
The Continental will be followed shortly by the resconstruction of the Hostal Azul Playa in Ciudad Jardin, the new Hotel Avenida in Plaza España and a tourist apartment complex in Calle Mision. The Palma hoteliers association, however, has expressed concern at the growth of hotels in the area.