According to tourism minister Bel Busquets, 82.6% of projects to be financed from tourist tax revenue raised in 2016 have been started, while 81.2% of projects with 2017 revenue are under way.
What this means is that 38 of the 2016 projects are being worked on and four are still being processed. The 38 include ones that require work and others that are acquisitions (for cultural heritage). As for the 2017 projects, 52 have been started and 12 more have not been.
Criticism regarding the transparency of tourist tax revenue has come in recent weeks from the Majorca Hoteliers Federation and opposition parties.
In parliament on Tuesday, Busquets had to respond to Josep Melià of El Pi, who said that the minister had suspended the improvement in tourism quality in the Balearics. The minister cited projects funded by the tourist tax as examples of the government's commitment to raising quality and pointed also to public and private sector partnerships that are transforming "mature" resorts.
Where 2016 projects are concerned, 30 million euros of tax revenue were allocated. The government states that almost 80% of these were environmental projects. Included among them were projects that were in response to drought and issues with water supply. Therefore, there are, as examples, ones for water treatment plants in Porreres (cost 1.33 million euros) and Camp de Mar (1.74 million).
The criticism of the government is not without justification. While Busquets sought to give assurances about projects under way, she also had to admit that only four have been completed. These relate to the 2016 revenue. One is in Ibiza - a connection for the desalination plant at Santa Eularia - a second is in Formentera and the other two are to do with agricultural initiatives on the different islands.
Another member of the opposition, Miquel Jerez of the Partido Popular, accused the tourism ministry of inaction, to which Busquets responded by saying - again - that there is to be a website to explain tourist tax spending. (There already is website information, but it isn't particularly detailed*.) She added that information leaflets will be distributed to hotels, but none of this convinced Jerez, who described the tourism ministry's management as a "failure" and wanted to know why the government is persisting with the Balearic Tourism Agency, the body which is meant to manage tourist tax projects.
* A list of projects (in English) is on the government's website - www.caib.es/sites/impostturisme/en/home/