The Fitur international tourism fair in Madrid opens on Wednesday. Ahead of it, the Exceltur Forum, now an established prelude to the fair, examined the need to make the tourism industry compatible with the social well-being of residents and with the conservation of urban and natural environments. And most of the interventions had a common denominator: uncontrolled tourist rentals as one of the main threats, if not the main one, to the sustainability of tourism.
With tourism having recovered from the pandemic, Spain registered a record year for tourism in 2023, the increase in tourist arrivals for the whole country in fact almost having matched the increase for the Balearics. However, the revival and growth have merely accentuated concerns about 'saturation' and a consequent social rejection of tourism. An issue at national level, it is an especially acute one in Mallorca and the Balearics.
At the forum, the CEO of Mallorca-based Meliá Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer, insisted that growth for growth's sake is no longer the objective. There has to be greater commitment to maintaining empathy with the social and environmental environment. In his opinion, the greatest blame for problems of gentrification and saturation lies with "the uncontrolled growth of tourist rental housing".
The CEO of Jet2Holidays, Steve Heapy, offered a solution: "If governments were knocking door to door at Airbnb properties demanding licences and payment of fees and fining those who don't comply, the problem would end immediately."
Jorge Marichal, president of the CEHAT national confederation of hotel associations, observed that hoteliers have become the target of citizen discontent, when this has its roots elsewhere. "I feel imprisoned for a murder that I have not committed. Problems have arisen that are blamed on us but that are the fault of holiday rentals."