The first meeting of the Commission for the Promotion of Sustainable Tourism has been held. This is the body that will decide how the revenue from the tourist tax is to be spent and is made up by representatives of the Balearic government and other parts of the public sector, the private sector, unions and various associations.
The aim is that the initial projects to be funded by the tax will be approved this November. The president of the commission, the tourism minister Biel Barceló, said of these projects that there is a commitment towards prioritising actions directed towards the environment and towards the improvement of products for sustainable tourism. There is to also be an emphasis on tackling seasonality and the protection of, among other things, the natural landscape. "Investment will be for specific purposes and the first projects will be undertaken during the first quarter of 2017."
Even before the commission's inaugural meeting, there have been disagreements as to the distribution of revenue from the fund for sustainable tourism, with the islands' councils seeking as much of this as possible. For Majorca there is to be a minimum of 68.14%, for Minorca 10.68%, for Ibiza it will be 12.85%, while Formentera is allocated 1.36%.
Inma Benito, the president of the Majorca Hoteliers Federation, said that she is satisfied at the constitution of the commission and is looking forward to there being maximum collaboration. (The hoteliers have of course opposed the introduction of the tax.) "There needs to be an optimisation of public-private collaboration with the aim of improving competitiveness and offsetting the loss of effectiveness stemming from the charging of the tax. We are still studying whether or not to bring a challenge to the tax, and this will be decided by our legal services."
Benito emphasised that the hoteliers are complying with the law on the collection of the tax and that this is being done in a totally normal fashion.