The Government's regulations that will force the elimination of at least 28,000 tourist rentals throughout Catalonia have fallen like a bucket of cold water in municipalities on the Costa Brava and Costa Daurada where the supply of tourist apartments has a great weight and others are residual. accommodation types such as hotels. “Our economic engine is tourism, do we want to destroy it? It is evident that this sector must be regulated, but listening to the territory, and this has not been done,” stated yesterday the mayor of Begur, Maite Selva (Junts). The municipality has about 1,700 units that will remain at about 400 if the rule is applied, as it is written.
"There are no tourist flats left, there are municipalities on the Costa Daurada that could not have tourism without housing of this type; it's irresponsibility", emphasizes Joan Calvet, president of the Costa Daurada and Terres de l'Ebre Tourist Apartments Association. The Government's decision has generated indignation and great concern among the seventy companies that are dedicated to renting out homes to tourists, especially on the coast of Tarragona, most of them second-hand homes. "We have not been asked anything in the sector itself. Many restaurateurs and traders on the Costa Dorada are very concerned. Where will they stay? They will go out of Catalonia", warns Quim Cristià, an entrepreneur specializing in renting out houses for tourist use in Salou.
In Port de la Selva, of the 500 tourist apartments there are, they will keep about a hundred. “Here we live off tourism! The other economic sectors are residual and we also barely have hotel rooms,” highlights the mayor, Josep Maria Cervera (Junts), who regrets “the coffee for all policy” that the Government has applied in this matter. “Barcelona and Port de la Selva are two different realities,” he states. The mayor of l'Escala, Josep Bofill (PSC), sees it the same way, who, with 10,000 inhabitants, should revoke the license of 2,200 homes for tourist use. Bofill remembers that between 85% and 90% of GDP corresponds to tourism.
There are also voices in favor of the measure. In Palafrugell, its mayor, Juli Fernández (PSC) celebrates the rule, although he would have liked “more consensus.” “The growth of apartments was putting pressure on the market,” he says. A few weeks ago the municipality approved a one-year moratorium on processing new licenses.
While the most affected mayors of the Costa Brava and Daurada are revealing themselves for a rule that they hope will not end up being applied, the tourism and business sector of Girona has already taken out the calculator to calculate the economic impact of the measure. The province concentrates more than 41,000 homes for tourist use, 40% of the total in all of Catalonia. With the decree in hand, there would be more than 17,000 units left over. This would translate into the loss, in summer alone, of more than 500,000 tourists who would stop visiting the destination, according to calculations provided by the president of the API in Girona, Joan Company. And more than 5,000 jobs linked to the service sector would also be at risk. “You can't play like that with people's bread,” he criticizes.
The tourism sector explains that the Costa Brava has a particular casuistry that differentiates it from other places. 74% of apartments are second homes. “The rentals that will disappear will not solve the housing problem, since the majority are second homes and will continue to be when the regulations are applied, so the only thing they will achieve is that the municipality will not pay the tourist tax either,” explains the first vice president of the Associació d'Apartaments Turístics Costa Brava-Pirineu de Girona, Antoni Garcia, who asks to rethink the regulations, which he describes as “populist” and “ineffective” to solve the housing emergency. From the Taula Gironina de Turisme they regret that they want to hold the sector responsible for the problem of homelessness. “The negligence of the Ministry and the Government has been transferred to the tourism sector, since until now nothing had been done to correct the problem of urban housing,” criticizes Lluís Torrent, member of the Taula Gironina. The business and tourism sector will go to court if the norm ends up being validated in Parliament within a month.
