If politics, like life, is a theater of masks where actors embody characters foreign to their own identity, with another face and a name different from the real one, Andalusia is, without a doubt, one of the (canonical) seats of the old art by Thalia. “Theatre,” wrote Joseph Joubert, an 18th-century French moralist, “should nobly amuse, but nothing more. To try to make it a school of morality is to corrupt both morality and art.” It is a fairly accurate description of the political atmosphere in Andalusia, which this week presented at the Madrid Tourism Fair (Fitur) its institutional commitment to promote one of its main economic sectors: the printing (tourism) industry.
Moreno Bonilla commanded the official expedition to Ifema, one of whose main events was the screening of the Andalusian Crush promotional campaign in the Plaza del Callao, to present a (triumphant) balance of the year that has just ended. Almost 34 million tourists visited the South of Spain in 2023. The most buoyant figure in all of history, which, according to the Palacio de San Telmo, contributed 24.8 billion euros to the regional economy. “We have measured up: optimism is justified,” said the president of the Board, determined to make citizens believe that his five years at the Quirinale is equivalent to a magical southern Quattrocento.
That Andalusia receives four times more visitors than its official population is, without a doubt, good news, although the economic impact of this activity is not redistributed proportionally – in social terms and quality employment – nor is it cost-free. As during the almost forty years of PSOE governments, the right has made tourism one of its populist banners. A (political) argument to amplify a supposed well-being that it mechanically associates, relegating private companies to the role of mere troupes, to its management. To sum it up the Italian way: Tourism is good, long live the Government.
This is not an exact photograph of the situation. Rather, it is the (advertising) story of an executive with an absolute majority who, five years after coming to power, has a very discreet management balance, not to say poor, although this fact does not translate into notable political erosion or Nor does it endanger established political stability in transition towards lasting hegemony, largely due to the demerits of the opposition.
Moreno Bonilla's triumphalism, which instead of diminishing due to the deterioration of public services such as healthcare – more expensive and surprisingly much worse – or the colossal drought, which made last year the worst of the century for agriculture in Andalusia, increases until incurring the majestic. To the point of exceeding reasonable proportions.
The Junta boasts of its only industry, which is genetically unstable, as was already evident during the pandemic, at a time when the inhabitants of southern cities are resigned to suffering water cuts before summer if there is not enough rain. San Telmo demands investments from the Government to guarantee the water supply but, in the exercise of its powers, it has not done much to mitigate the consumption of reserves caused by the very intense tourist monoculture.
Each of the triumphant figures that the Andalusian embassy showed in Ifema – 8.7% more overnight stays in hotels, a tourist apartment plant that leads all European statistics – hid the high environmental costs of an activity based on absence effective measure and regulation. Andalusia leads, with a share of 21%, the list of tourist destinations in Spain, ahead of Madrid, Valencia and Catalonia.
These are visitors who are mostly Spanish – only a third are international – who stay in hotels or tourist apartments, causing the accelerated gentrification of historic centers, the real estate colonization of the coast – developments and golf courses – and increasing the prices of both housing and food and hospitality. This process has accelerated in the last five years without San Telmo, at any time, attempting to channel it to mitigate its impact in social and environmental terms.
We are talking about an essentially underground economy, given that only a portion of tourist accommodation in private homes and accommodations is legalized. The Board has avoided any planning. Letting things go, or joining the tourist bubble, places Moreno Bonilla in a contradiction. The president cries out for Moncloa's lack of attention in the face of the drought, just as he did in the Doñana affair until he ran into Europe's (environmental) wall, but his government avoids at all costs managing this economic activity that It competes with hotels and plunders the dwindling water reserves of reservoirs.
According to official data, in Andalusia there are 112,128 homes for tourist purposes (589,217 beds). Every year they multiply at a rate of 22%. Every two the offer increases by 40%. Almost 60% of these residences, not including the pirate apartments, are concentrated in Malaga, where the majority of the PP's leading core in the Junta comes from. The rest are distributed between Cádiz (16,400), Almería (9,425) and Seville (9,336), almost all of them concentrated in the capital.
The (official) tourist housing business moves 3.7 billion each year in Andalusia. Its magnitude is such that it has become a recurring theme in municipal politics. Especially since the PP governs the eight capitals of Southern Spain and six of the eight provincial councils. Only then has the Board agreed to consider the convenience of putting some order in the sector, although without having effective inspection instruments.
San Telmo plans to imminently approve a decree so that, in some cases, mayors can limit the excess of tourist apartments. The measure, whose effectiveness is quite debatable, arrives late. The immense ocean of tourist homes that has colonized the cities and coasts of Andalusia does not pay taxes as it should - unlike hotels -, it feeds the informal economy (which in some localities represents a third of the real economy), it does not pay the inherent taxes to a lucrative activity and disrupts the ordinary housing market, causing the expulsion of the middle classes from the best urban enclaves.
Hotels consider tourist apartments a form of “unfair competition” and are a source of citizen discord. It is not the worst: the data indicates that these establishments use more than three times as much water as a normal home. A tourist staying in a legal tourist residence needs 350 liters of water per day compared to the consumption of an ordinary resident (105 liters/day).
Moreno Bonilla, who promised a year ago to eliminate the regional water fee, not only has not done so, but has given the green light to his mayors to, in turn, increase supply and purification rates. Without exceptions. Although this price increase affects hotels, which have instruments to control consumption, and official tourist homes – the illegal ones pretend to be private apartments –, the measure arrives excessively late.
When there is no water for everyone. Neither for the countryside, nor for companies, nor – in the short term – for citizens. This is the real Andalusian Crash.
