Don't Mention Holidays: The tourism law

Have you ever tried reading through 115 articles that comprise a new law in the Balearics? In Catalan? Chances are that you have never attempted to or would attempt to were the 115 in Catalan, Castellano, English or Klingon, though the latter might make the most sense.

An oddity, given the regional government's apparent indifference to Catalan, is that it can publish laws in Catalan. So, forget everything I said yesterday. This is a government that defends Catalan to the hilt, all 115 articles of it.

This is the new tourism law, a law for tourists, though few will be taking a copy off to the beach to use as light reading whilst stretched out on a lilo. As far as I can see, there is no article or appendix which covers lilos; they are about the only thing which isn't covered.

Of course, no one really needs to read any of it as it had been thoroughly flagged up before heading off for parliamentary rubber-stamping. Some attempts at  amendment were always forlorn, while moans coming from the PSM Mallorcan socialists that, rather than the rise in tourist-rate IVA, there should have been provision in the bill for a tourist tax do somewhat confuse national and regional legislation; the Balearic Government cannot not impose IVA, or maybe the PSM doesn't realise this.

Much has been said about this new law and many column inches have been devoted to it, but is it any good? Well, I'm prepared to stick my neck out and say that it is pretty good. There will be those who hate it, but the underlying principle of modernisation, that of accommodation and resorts, is correct.

A further principle is one of seeking to bring some order to the general tourism offer. The bill has been criticised for turning the clock back to the disorderliness and wild-west style of the 1960s, so perhaps for this reason, the preamble to the bill refers to the lack of order in the '60s and also to legislative attempts of the 1990s to create some order but which didn't fully address competitive needs for the 21st century. The consequence of all this has been variable standards and lack of profitability.

There are no surprises in the law. We already knew, for example, about conversion of hotel use to condos; about the tax to be paid on the value of conversions which will find its way to town halls that have to use it for improvements in tourism areas; about the general upgrading of hotel stock that will result in an elimination of one and two-star accommodation.

For the most part though, most of you will find much of the law of only passing interest, if that. Aspects that will be of most interest relate to tackling seasonality, the role of all-inclusives and holiday lets.

Though there are several references to lessening the impact of seasonality, there is little that is of substance. Rural tourism will benefit from a relaxation of planning requirements, but a stipulation that had initially been made for hotels that convert to condos to be open for eight months has been watered down to six.

On all-inclusives, we had already heard about the prevention of food and drink being taken out of hotels by guests (not that frankly this makes a difference) and also about the requirement for hotels which offer all-inclusive to institute a plan for quality. However, on the key issue of service in an AI, as in the provision of food and drink and the time it takes to be served, the law is vague to the point of being opaque. One thing that may affect some all-inclusive establishments at the lower end of the market has to do with the provision of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning).

Then there are the holiday lets. I should probably stop referring to them as holiday lets because the law says that it will be illegal to even apply words such as holiday, vacation or tourist to property that is not legally registered for tourism purposes. There has been no shifting where private holiday apartments are concerned. They are illegal and it is illegal to even advertise them. The fines now range from 4,000 to 40,000 euros.

The treatment of holiday lets is the one really bad part of the law. It is a mistake in what is otherwise a decent enough piece of legislation. But we knew it was coming, as the law is a law primarily for hotels. And unlike in Catalonia, where they are more sensible, the voices of the hotels are the only ones which matter.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.