The Balearic Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Jaume Bauzà, said on Wednesday that the Aetib survey on excessive tourism reveals social ‘concern’ about tourism and ‘supports the Government’s policies’, such as the containment decree that does not allow new places and the fight against illegal offers.
Regarding the Aetib survey, according to which 75% of the Balearics believe that the number of tourists is excessive and 69.1% want to limit it, Bauzà assured at a press conference that ‘no survey is needed to know how society on these islands feels. With this survey, the current government is being blamed for previous management that has led to this concern in society,’ he said about the survey conducted in October 2024, which he said the Regional Ministry had published as soon as the data was available.
In Bauzà’s opinion, the survey “shows that there is a section of society, which I estimate from the responses to be around 30%, that rejects tourism and rejects it because 115,000 more tourist beds have been created in 10 years, because illegal tourist rentals are out of control, because the tourist tax was not being used for its intended purpose, European funds were not mobilised and were not used for sponging or improving areas‘.
‘We are fully aware of society’s concerns, we already were in 2023, and policies are aimed at responding to them,‘ he argued. He added that although ‘there are those who would like to see tourism eradicated’, the government cannot allow this because it is ‘the main activity in this region, accounting for 40% of direct GDP and 80% of indirect GDP, with more than 200,000 people working and full employment’.
He insisted that the survey ‘absolutely reaffirms the policies’ being implemented by the government headed by Marga Prohens. In his opinion, the measures to be taken begin with ‘reducing illegal supply, which abuses the territory and resources’ and allocating the tourist tax and European funds to ‘combating the tourist footprint’.
‘Of course there are things we would have liked to have taken more courageous steps on,’ he admitted, citing as an example the ban on rental licences already granted for multi-family dwellings. ‘We have not hidden the fact that we wanted to tackle this, but the responsibility of governing and not leaving a burden on those who may come after us in terms of compensation for rights that were granted has prevented us from doing so,’ he said.
On the subject of social support for increasing the tourist tax, Bauzà stressed that the PP government proposed this increase ‘before seeking parliamentary support’. ‘Our position, which caused us some headaches, was to raise the tourist tax, and in the negotiation process, everyone has to give ground, and we gave ground on this issue,’ he said.
As for the fact that around seven out of ten respondents are in favour of limiting cruise ships, the Minister of Tourism explained that the government is negotiating a new ‘memorandum’ with the shipping companies, a goodwill agreement to ‘continue along the same lines’. ‘We are not here to pursue a scorched earth policy,’ he said.
Regarding the 79.6% of respondents who advocate limiting rental cars, Bauzà pointed out that this is a matter for the island councils, which are addressing it ‘at different paces’, but there is ‘a common alignment, which is limitation’. The minister declined to comment on the demands for urgent and forceful measures against tourist overcrowding made by the Civil Society Forum, because they did not condemn an ‘attack’ that took place in front of the Department of Tourism, ‘burning photographs of people and the president of the Government’.