PR Disaster: Calvia's tiquetero tax

Calvia town hall is to permit "tiqueteros" once more. It hasn't decided exactly what the new ordinance governing the PRs will entail, but it has already decided what it is going to cost. Going to cost bars, restaurants and clubs, that is. The town hall is licking its lips at the prospect of 1.2 million euros finding their way into the municipal coffers, over a third of them in the form of fines, as a consequence of the PRs returning to the streets of Magalluf and other resorts and of their employers having to pay the town hall for the privilege.

Depending on the size of establishment and therefore the number of PRs that will be allowed, a bar owner could find him or herself having to fork out up to 3,500 euros a week.

For larger places, the cost of one employee could be as much as 350 euros more per week. This is because larger establishments will be obliged to fork out 50 euros a day (and they would be allowed to employ a maximum of ten PRs). Smaller places, i.e. less than one hundred square metres in size, will have to pay 30 euros a day but can only employ one PR.

To the onus of the tax (and this is the only way it can be described) is added an engineering of the business process. Smaller bars might wish to employ more PRs, so why shouldn't they be allowed to? What is the obsession with 100 square metres (or 200, another level of tax determination?

Over and above the arbitrariness, there is the question as to how such a tax can be justified, as it is a tax on marketing. The town hall's response would probably be along the lines of the fact that a PR occupies space owned by the town that is on the "public way". It is the same sort of principle as is applied to terraces which encroach onto the public way.

Up to a point, one can understand this, but where PRs are concerned, to be allowing them and then to be charging for them is a case of giving with one hand and taking with the other. But what if PRs were to be based only on a bar's property? What if they never moved? This would be unlikely, but were it to be so, then how could the town hall justify the tax? Only if the town's property is being used, can it feel safe in levying such a charge.

While regulating what businesses do is a legitimate responsibility of local authorities, too often bars appear to bear the brunt of petty and heavy-handed regulation. This is symptomatic of a culture in which business often appears to be misunderstood or simply exploited. There is a them-and-us culture, one exacerbated by a town hall mindset in which revenue calculations are arrived at with fines having been factored in. Town halls might be right to think like this, but it doesn't exactly make for an atmosphere in which all sectors of local resorts are co-operating for the greater good.

But, aside from the tax, what of the return of the PRs? Plenty of businesses have argued that they have suffered because they can't employ them (well, not legitimately). Perhaps so, but one reason why they were banned and why in other resorts they were confined to the premises and not meant to be patrolling the streets, was that there were so many complaints about harassment.

The town hall doubtless has a list of rules that it will unfurl to cover how PRs should operate, and doubtless they will be ignored. Allowing the return of PRs is one thing, making bars pay a tax for them is another. Calvia is making a rod for its own back. A bar owner who is obliged to spend as much as is being envisaged will want to make damn sure that he or she gets a return. And this is likely to mean a return to harassment of passers-by.

You can already begin to imagine how it's going to be. The local police will be spending all their time under instruction from the town hall to go in search of PRs acting inappropriately or without the tax having been paid so that the town hall can say it is keeping a lid on things and make a few more bob from fines. Meanwhile, other complaints that surface in the tourism season in resorts such as Magalluf will go unattended.

They're bringing back the PRs, but they're likely to bring about a PR disaster as well. Just wait for the internet to get clogged up with tourists moaning about the PRs.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.