Othman Ktiri, founder of the OK Group and CEO of car-hire firm OK Mobility, acknowledges that hire cars are central to the current debate about the tourism model in Mallorca and the Balearics; there are calls for limits to the number of vehicles. He is firmly against limits.
"You can't reduce the number of hire cars if you don't increase public transport. Anything that involves limiting the offer once the tourist has arrived in the destination would lead to greater chaos. Let us remember the chaos that there was with taxis and with the microchip crisis, which caused a lack of rental vehicles. No firm brings a single car to the islands thinking that it is not going to be hired. In addition, not all hire cars serve tourists, they also serve many residents."
Ktiri applauds the appointment of Professor Antoni Riera as coordinator of the working parties for the Balearic government's pact for sustainability, the emphasis on data and the fact that decisions will not be made with haste.
"Wrong decisions could be made. The first thing that must be very clear is that what is happening in the Balearics is happening all over the world and in destinations of all kinds. The planet has a new challenge to ensure that everything remains sustainable."
But on data, exact figures for the number of vehicles for hire remain elusive. He rejects a suggestion that the sector suffers from a lack of transparency, referring to a survey of members by the Baleval association of car-hire firms that has sought to come up with figures. This was done anonymously because the question dealt with strategic data. A rough estimate of 100,000, he insists, "is a very rough estimate". "I haven't seen the report that has arrived at this number."
Following a two-year stint, he recently quit as the president of Baleval. He took on the presidency at a time when the sector was being "demonised quite a bit". In his view it is not well known what the sector contributes to tourism and to society as a whole. "It is a vital sector for a greater distribution of wealth. Over two years we managed to increase the number of car-hire companies by 23%. We have promoted diversity and we have broken the cliché that Baleval is an association of large companies."
Ideally, he believes, there should be just the one association. Aevab is the other, Ktiri arguing that the two associations have more in common than that which separates them. "I am in favour of there being a single association that represents the sector because unity is strength. I have never fought with Aevab, but I have done what I have considered to be best for the sector."
A difference, he suggests, is that Baleval defends free competition while it can sometimes seem that Aevab wants to limit this.