The Balearic Islands begin the path towards the elimination of tourist places with a pioneering law

Fewer tourist places, more sustainable hotels with lift-up beds that facilitate the work of chambermaids, more local products in tourist establishments and the possibility of hotel accommodation being transformed into homes h that can be expanded by up to 15% provided that reduce part of your offer.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
31 May 2022 Tuesday 10:07
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The Balearic Islands begin the path towards the elimination of tourist places with a pioneering law

Fewer tourist places, more sustainable hotels with lift-up beds that facilitate the work of chambermaids, more local products in tourist establishments and the possibility of hotel accommodation being transformed into homes h that can be expanded by up to 15% provided that reduce part of your offer.

They are the keys to the new tourism law that has been approved by the Balearic Parliament and that represents a change of course with respect to the unstoppable growth of places that has dominated the tourist reality of the Islands for all these years. The Balearic Islands receive more than 16 million tourists every year, most of them foreigners.

The vice president of the Balearic Government, Juan Pedro Yllanes (Podemos), was absent from the debate as a gesture to show the discomfort of his parties at the fact that the law has not been more ambitious when it comes to demanding energy transition measures from hoteliers . He is the portfolio that manages in the Balearic Executive and on this point there have been discrepancies during the processing of the law. However, the deputies of Podemos have voted in favor of the norm,

In the Balearic Islands there are 625,000 tourist places for a population of 1.2 million inhabitants, which means one place for every two inhabitants of this territory. With the tourist situation as the axis of political and social debate in recent years, the islands open the door to a change of model that, ultimately, foresees the elimination of some 40,000 places in the medium and long term.

As a first step for this decrease, the islands approved a moratorium on places a few months ago that freezes new authorizations for a period of four years, which is the time that the consells will have to decide what to do with the nearly 30,000 virtual places that are in a bag and that, without the moratorium, would allow it to continue growing. The new law prevents that pool of vacancies from being used and foresees that they will progressively disappear in the medium and long term.

Another important novelty of the law is that it allows the change of uses of lots that have tourist use. They may be converted into lots for residential use on the condition that 30% of the flats are for public housing. It also enables the reconversion of obsolete 1 and 2-star hotels into housing, provided that 50% is public protection.

The hotel rooms of these establishments will go to the pool of places, but in return the employers will have the obligation to substitute all the workers of the accommodations that disappear. Tourist sites and obsolete hotels can also be converted into offices or residences for the elderly.

The new rule allows hotels to expand up to 15% for improvements in common areas, but as compensation they must reduce their beds proportionally to the size of the expansion. Exempt from this condition are establishments with less than 150 places, which may be expanded without reducing supply.

In addition to the measures to reconvert beds and reduce supply, there is also the obligation for the hotels on the islands to install elevating beds within a maximum period of six years. It is estimated that some 300,000 beds will have to be changed in the different accommodations in the community. This is a measure designed to facilitate the work of the chambermaids, the so-called 'kelly'.

The new law encourages the consumption of local products between 3% and 10% of all that is consumed, depending on the category of the hotel. From now on it will be one of the issues that will be taken into account so that the accommodations go up in category.

The new law has the support of the left-wing parties, with specific support from the Proposta per les Illes (PI), the regionalist party of the islands, from Cs and from Més per Menorca. The hotel sector in Mallorca has given its support to the measures to contain supply and convert hotels into homes, but has not commented on the reduction in beds. PP and Vox are totally against the norm and the 'popular' have announced that, if they govern, they will modify it substantially.

The vote comes amid intense debate on the islands about the need to limit tourism growth, which has intensified in recent years. 16 million tourists arrive at the Islands every year and a sector of the population is against the tourism model betting on uncontrolled growth. Some 2,000 people gathered in Palma on Saturday to ask that all regional legislation take into account the consequences it will have in the future.