Strangling Debate: Illegal accommodation

In 2004, a debate about illegal accommodation was broadcast on Mallorca's Canal 4. Those participating in the debate were the secretary-general of the Spanish travel agencies association, the secretary-general of the Mesa del Turismo (a body now comprising some thirty businesses in the tourism sector), the regional government's director-general of tourism regulation, and the presidents of both the Mallorcan and the Ibizan hoteliers federations. 

The debate was organised by the tourism magazine "Hosteltur" and was subsequently reported on in the magazine. It is the only meaningful example I can find (or easily find, at any rate) of a discussion about the so-called "ofterta ilegal" in the local Spanish media. Though the report that is now available is only short, what is clear is that all parties to this debate seemed to favour one side of the argument. It doesn't sound like it was much of a debate.

The history of effective legislation in the Balearics against illegal accommodation goes back to 1998. The Partido Popular government of Jaume Matas introduced what was described then as the most comprehensive legislation in Spain. The most complete and the most perfect, said one of the debate's participants. Between 1998 and the debate that took place in 2004 and also since 2004, little has changed in legislative terms, except for provisions in 2007 which required rental property to be registered as either for holiday or long-term residential purposes and which expressly excluded private apartments from being registered for holiday rental. The 2012 law is really no more than a confirmation, with some bells and whistles, of the 1998 legislation.

What also hasn't changed since 2004 is the lack of balance and the lack of logic that constitute the debate. As now, the focus was very much on the hoteliers' arguments regarding unfair competition from holiday lets, and the debate also considered the problems caused by the property boom that Mallorca had been experiencing. This had led to the purchase of apartments (and other accommodation) which were being rented out illegally. What had also happened, alongside the property boom, was a marked increase in the number of tourists coming to Mallorca and the Balearics; between 1991 and 2001, the number of tourists arriving annually in the Balearics rose by 3.7 million.

In the same period, the number of hotels and regulated tourist apartments in the Balearics increased by just over 100 establishments, representing a rise in the number of places of 12,000. What is interesting is that while the number of hotels increased, the number of regulated tourist apartments decreased. At the same time, however, the level of tourist stays in unregulated accommodation rose by a factor of almost 400%; in 2001, it stood at roughly a quarter of that in regulated hotels and apartments. 

Though the number of hotels increased during 1991 and 2001, the building of new hotels effectively came to an end by the middle of the 1990s. Since then, there has been little new hotel building; as an example, in Alcúdia only one new hotel has been built this century.

The 2004 debate, therefore, implied that the hotel sector had been disadvantaged by restrictions on new building, while it was more explicit in attributing the dramatic rise in illegal accommodation to the property boom. What was peculiar about the debate was that the dramatic rise in tourism, brought about by both the increase in hotels and private accommodation in the 1990s, didn't seem to be something to celebrate.

Some of the unregulated accommodation did become regulated. Josep Aloy, who was the director-general of tourism regulation, spoke in 2004 of the need to ensure that everything was done to ensure that accommodation was legalised, but his words gave the game away with regard to what sort of accommodation should be regularised: "it should not be about banning anyone from renting his house to tourists". House, not apartment. The upshot of this was the 2007 registration.

The debate about illegal accommodation, where there is one - and it isn't in the Spanish media - hasn't moved on from 2004. It is still concerned with unfair competition faced by hotels and it is still deprived of the presence of any voice which might present a meaningful counter argument. In 2004, the participants were all singing from a similar hymn sheet. Presented with this conformity of view, it is perhaps unsurprising that the local media follows this conformity in neglecting to consider the alternative view.

I hadn't intended putting together a series of articles, but this is what has happened as it becomes clearer the extent to which one side of the debate is strangled by the monopoly on opinion created by the hoteliers.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.