This increase, allowed under the tourism law, is concerning the town hall. It does not believe that it conforms with a sustainable tourism model. Antoni Noguera, deputy mayor for urban planning and the model of the city, argues that no thought has been given to facilities and services as a consequence of the increased number of rooms. "It will have a clear impact on capacity of the beach as well as for water and sanitation resources." He notes that while a resident consumes an average of 110 litres of water per day, a tourist can use up to three times as much.
"We are playing with the future of the sustainable city through a blank cheque (for construction) in this tourist area. We cannot allow the city to be mortgaged." He accepts that tourism is essential but insists that there has to be sustainable growth. To do otherwise will result in the collapse of municipal services.
The growth, Noguera points out, is the result of the tourism law of the last regional government. The decree that the current administration recently approved on building development returned rules for such development to those envisaged by the redevelopment plan for Playa de Palma (PRI), as had been called for by the town halls in Palma, Llucmajor and also Calvia in order to prevent the carte blanche of the tourism law.
Under the law, additions to existing hotels in order to increase their star classifications were allowed for a period of five years, which ends in 2017. In many instances, though, these have been added to ones permitted by the PRI. This has led, says the director for urban planning, Joan Riera, to disproportionate increases.
The correction under the decree will mean that building work will have to abide by the rules of the PRI, something which itself might be revised. Riera observes that there are some things that aren't quite working with this but that this is not only an issue for Palma.
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Well - it's a bit rich for Inma de Benito to blame the villa and finca owners for damaging the 'sustainable tourism'. They are probably just trying to earn a little to get through the winter. And of course they are the major contributors to the supermarket, restaurant, bar and car hire businesses. Especially now that 3700 new hotel beds in Playa de Palma will be in place by next year. Even the Palma mayor says neither the beach nor the water supply can cope with this. Although those permits were issued by the previous administration, our new loony left will not be able to cancel this without incurring us all with mega debts as they will have to pay compensation. Next year the hoteliers will open up yet more 'agroturismos' - with permits I suppose. They are springing up all over the island. They do nothing to help the environment - just because it has the word 'agro' people think it's good. They are only hotels in the country without a beach - but with the same damage to the island's resources. Instead of taxing the poor budget hotel clients and cruisers, take the €1-2 daily from the hoteliers. When they can't saturate this island anymore they will spend their money in Cuba etc. as they are already doing.