Pedro Fiol, the president of the Aviba association of travel agencies in the Balearics and one of the fiercest critics of the Spanish Government's new traveller registration system, is warning that some tour operators will stop selling the Balearics because of this system.
He is not referring to large tour operators but to small ones that specialise in specific sectors - sport and conferences/exhibitions most notably. "It is not possible to give so much data so far in advance. For example, when a company reserves a hotel to hold an event it doesn't know exactly who will attend. How is it going to provide more than 40 pieces of information in 24 hours if it doesn't know who will be participating. The same thing happens with sports teams. These types of reservations are made months or even years in advance, based on forecasts, but these are not confirmed names."
Losing these types of customer, Fiol says, will be "very negative for the Balearic economy". "Their spending is higher than that of the average tourist and they come in the medium or low season, so they don't contribute to generating the feeling of saturation." He stresses that data confidentiality carries a great deal of importance in Europe. "There is much sensitivity regarding data protection; Europeans are reluctant to provide it."
Fiol adds that the companies themselves will refuse and are refusing to provide client data. This is competitive information that they fear could be stolen. In this regard, large tour operators have similar concerns and are of the view that the requirements breach EU data protection law.
As to the system that crashed on the first day of operation, Fiol explains that it is now possible to enter information but that in many instances it is being blocked when the process comes to an end and is lost. Providers then have to go through the whole process again.
One response by travel agencies, not just in the Balearics, has been to threaten withdrawing from the Imserso programme of subsidised holidays for Spain's senior citizens. The subsidies are the government's.
For the hotel sector, the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation of Mallorca says the requirements represent "a very high level of legal uncertainty". This is because of "interference in the privacy of the client and processing of personal data that enjoy a high degree of protection". "Spain is the only country in Europe with this type of demand and the government has been warned about overstepping the boundaries and of the potential damage." The federation highlights the intrusion into privacy and the risk of possible data leaks. The responsibility for these leaks would fall on those who have collected and communicated the data.
The interior ministry has established a consultation period, which is due to end on December 13. It remains to be seen if there is any revision as a result of this consultation, the ministry at present holding to its arguments that the register is a necessary police instrument for the prevention of and fight against terrorism and organised crime and that it complies with data protection law. These are arguments that Spain's secretary-of-state for tourism, the Mallorcan Rosario Sánchez, has also made.