Following the elections in 2019, the chief operating officer of Iberostar, Aurelio Vázquez, said that he would have considered entering politics if the centre-right had won. This was an option for a senior figure in Mallorca’s hotel industry who had already announced that he would be leaving Iberostar. A one-time president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, Vázquez stated that tourism should be managed by a political party that “is not sectarian or demagogic” where tourism is concerned. There should be “permanent, rational dialogue”.
His remarks, it was concluded, were taken as a criticism of Balearic government tourism management under Bel Busquets of Més. As if to underline this, he went on to add that he agreed with Gabriel Escarrer of Meliá and other hoteliers who were of the view that tourism would be best off under PSOE. The centre-right may not have won the election, but PSOE were the next best option and he trusted that they would “reach a consensus with the hotel industry”.
The election did bring about this change in political management. Iago Negueruela of PSOE took over the tourism portfolio, one that PSOE had attempted to wrest from Més at the time of the resignation of Biel Barceló of Més. PSOE had been reasonably comfortable with Barceló at the tourism ministry; Busquets was a different matter.
After leaving Iberostar, Vázquez became senior director asset management at HIP, Hotel Investment Partners, responsible for the group’s portfolio in the Balearics; HIP is a subsidiary of the investment management company Blackstone. Some months into that post, he said in an interview that dedicating himself to politics would be his next step - to politics and to being the tourism minister.
Last week, it was reported that Vázquez’s name had been mentioned often in recent weeks as a likely number two on the Partido Popular election list for the Balearic parliament. Had his name been frequently mentioned? It was the first I’d heard of it, that was for sure. Also last week, and for a brief time, it was reported that this was definitely the case. There was then a rapid change in reporting. Vázquez would not be number two. Moreover, the leader of the PP, Marga Prohens, hadn’t even considered this to be a possibility. So it was said.
How had this yes he will, no he won’t situation arisen? Did it have to do with what he had once said? There must have been some basis to it, only for it to be swiftly and categorically denied. Who can say. But then we are in election mode and at a time when headlines are to be made from election stories, even if they turn out to be inaccurate. And as tourism is a major election issue, it is perhaps easy to understand how all this might have come about. Vázquez had certainly sent out signals, such as saying that politics and businesspeople from the tourism sector should go hand in hand. Indeed, but that was four years ago.
It has been said often enough that political management of tourism in the Balearics (and not just on the islands) would benefit from having a businessperson, as this person would bring first-hand knowledge to the portfolio. Since the establishment of regional government in the Balearics in 1983, there has been only one minister steeped in tourism (and in the hotel sector) and that was the first ever tourism minister, Jaume Cladera. But then, the position of director-general, certainly with Negueruela, has been filled by someone with business experience of the sector - first Rosana Morillo and now Isabel Vidal. Is this not sufficient? I’m not necessarily convinced by the businessperson as minister argument. It would depend on who the person was, while the potential to be perceived as “sectarian” would be great - sectarian as in, for instance, promoting the hotelier cause over that of others.
Meanwhile, it seems to me that election stories about tourism (or anything else for that matter) could do with less sectarianism than they are prone to. A forlorn hope of course, given the biases of individuals and of publications. Even so, I cite as an example an article from a source which defends the tourism industry strongly and stated that “the hated tourism for authorities such as those of the Balearics and Barcelona is becoming a key factor in the elections”.
I’ve been critical of Negueruela in the past. But hated? A description that is wholly inappropriate and inaccurate and which would also be for PSOE’s government’s partners. There’s no hate, that’s ridiculous. The likes of Bel Busquets haven’t played well with the tourism industry, but she could never have been accused of hating tourism. And where the current minister is concerned, there has been Meliá’s Escarrer saying that he has felt comfortable with both him and President Armengol, while - if we go back in time to what the man who is not the PP’s number two had to say - we’ll discover, and certainly apropos the tourism of excesses law, that “minister Negueruela has good intentions”.