The president of the Balearics, Marga Prohens, has welcomed the fact that tourism is growing ‘like never before’ during the mid and low season months in the Balearics. She said that this is a ‘change in trend’ brought about by the commitment to cultural and sports tourism, which is allowing the “peaks” in tourist numbers to be ‘shifted from the high season to other months’.
‘We are focusing on culture, we want it to be an attraction for those who visit us beyond the summer months. This strategy is working. Containment in summer, with growth below 1%, and growing like never before in the mid and low season months,’ she said during the opening of the Forbes Illes Balears Tourism Summit. The event, which is being at the Museu Es Baluard, seeks to address the Balearic model of ‘regenerative tourism’ and will be attended by the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Jaume Bauzá, the museum’s director, David Barro, and the CEO of Forbes Spain, Ignacio Quintana.
Prohens welcomed the existence of a forum to ‘address the future of tourism, which must be sustainable, regenerative and not only a generator of opportunities but also of well-being for residents’.
‘This must be the present and the future of tourism so that tourism continues to have a future,’ stressed the regional president. She expressed her conviction that the regional government, with the measures adopted so far, is ‘on the right track’ although there is still ‘a long way to go’.
‘We want to lead the transformation of tourism throughout Europe, to be a region that is seen as a success story in sustainability and regenerative tourism. We are, perhaps, the first example of an economy that wants to move forward not from recession or crisis but from success, from a model that generates wealth and employment,’ she said.
She also focused on the need to mitigate the ‘negative impact’ that, ‘like any industry’, the tourism model generates. ‘Sustainability, to be truly sustainable, must be economic, social and environmental. And if one of the three pillars fails, it will be something else, but it will not be sustainability,’ she stressed.
Among the measures adopted to correct these problems, Prohens highlighted the work of the Pact for Sustainability and the decree on tourism containment. This regulation, she pointed out, has made it possible to move towards ‘containing tourist pressure’ in the high season, redirecting flows for greater seasonality, growth in value rather than volume, and the fight against illegal supply. She also highlighted the improvements in the conditions of workers in the tourism sector included in the hospitality agreement signed a few months ago between employers and trade unions, ‘with an unprecedented increase in wages’.