Gabriel Escarrer, the CEO of Mallorca-based Meliá Hotels International and president of the Exceltur alliance of leading companies in the travel and tourism sectors, believes that the Balearic government's decision to increase the tourist tax between June and August will be "disastrous". "It will have the effect of worsening saturation and increasing residents' annoyance. It cannot fix the problems, only paper over them."
Escarrer argues that the measure will be "ineffective". "It has been proven that the tax has no deterrent impact on demand." It is also a "fictitious tax" in that revenue is not dedicated to the theoretical purpose that motivated its introduction - the improvement of the sustainability of the Balearics as a tourist destination. The revenue goes "to the current expenditure of the administration".
The increase will also be, in his opinion, "a discriminatory measure that will cause a boomerang effect". "It will strengthen the illegal offer, which neither contributes to nor respects the limits of the islands. It will only saturate."
The boss of Spain's largest hotel company aligns himself with the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation in pointing out that the government should have gone further and prohibited all holiday apartment lets that are currently registered; the government is only proposing a ban on new licences. "This laxity regarding an accommodation offer that generates the least social value and which saturates the most is not understood. It has grown exponentially, divorced from any planning and limitation."
Not acting against this type of holiday rental "consolidates an anomaly" at a time when there is an in-depth debate on the need to address a change of model to tackle negative consequences of tourism. "The sustainability pact was created with the aim of reaching a consensus on the tourism model that we want and need in the Balearics and then working together and courageously to achieve it."
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Once again we hear from the vested interests of the hotel owners who appear ignorant of the fact that the tourism market has moved on unless Majorca wants to stick with the low cost all inclusive model which contributes nothing to the economy outside of the hotels. If the EES does happen then the hotel owners will be the first to feel the reduction in tourism numbers as people will just move to less bureaucratic destinations without the hassle.