Police

Interior minister unveils tourism security plan

Juan Ignacio Zoido (centre, next to Maria Salom) in Playa de Palma yesterday. | Alejandro Sepúlveda

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma17/05/2018 00:00

The national interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, was in Palma yesterday to present the 2018 Safe Tourism Plan. Accompanied by the national government delegate in the Balearics, Maria Salom, and the director-general of the National Police, Germán López Iglesias, the minister said that the plan has been devised in order to increase public security in areas with the greatest tourist activity.

The aims, he explained, are to increase surveillance on roads, at hotels and at airports and to also reinforce security measures at shows and events. Ultimately, the plan is designed to "prevent crime and improve the security of foreign visitors and nationals".

To facilitate this, procedures at police stations are to be streamlined, while there is to be an increase in police numbers to ensure police presence in the main resorts and other areas where there are large concentrations of tourists.

Zoido stressed that Spain "is a very safe country, but the government wants it to be even more so". He added that the national government has not spared an "iota" on tourism security and referred to his ministry's "special sensitivity with our islands". The minister also said that it is necessary to combat tourism which causes conflict in "some areas of the Balearic Islands". He was in Playa de Palma, which might be said to be one of these areas.