Playing the statistics game is one fraught with the danger that comes from disbelief. In Mallorca we know only too well that this is true. But as it is a game so beloved by the regional government, hoteliers and others, then I don't see why I shouldn't join in.
Research by the university and Sa Nostra Bank revealed that in August last year Mallorca received 1,355,241 tourists. Research isn't required in confirming the total number of hotel places in Mallorca. These are a matter of record, and the total stands at 284,956.
The more observant among you will have noticed that there are 31 days in August. Consequently, the daily average of the number of tourists in August is 43,717. But this doesn't correspond to the number of tourists who are in Mallorca on any given August day. Calculating this number with any accuracy isn't straightforward, but one way is by using standard methods recommended by the European Commission's Eurostat division.
Eurostat gives an average length of tourist stay for Mallorca of 6.5 nights. From this, one can make an admittedly simplistic calculation as to the average number of tourists on any given day - 284,160, a figure which is remarkably similar to the total number of hotel places. Average hotel occupancy rates, though, were in the order of 90% last August, so there were getting on for 30,000 tourists who were not staying in hotels.
For once, and quite remarkably, I find myself agreeing with Carlos Delgado. He has said that the level of tourism accounted for by rented accommodation is 9%. His sidekick, Jaime Martínez, has elaborated on this and places the figure at between 9% and 12.4%. My simple figure is 10%, so we are in a similar ballpark, though none of us are saying how much is actually illegal.
These figures are a good deal lower than ones that have been claimed by others. At roughly 10% of total tourism, they are significant but they by no means represent the sort of competitive threat that the hoteliers keep claiming. The hoteliers would of course like to capture this 10%, but this is unrealistic, as tourists want a choice, and there are many who want anything other than a hotel. Moreover, there will be times when the total number of tourists is higher, while the number of hotel places that are registered is a number for maximum capacity. Not all hotels operate under conditions of maximum capacity; you can probably lop off a good 10% from the total 285k number in order to arrive at a real figure, meaning that, as has been said many times, there aren't, certainly in the height of summer, enough hotel places to go round.
The government's quoting of 9% is very interesting. In a way, because it isn't that high, it undermines some of its own rhetoric, and begs a question as to why there is such an almighty great fuss about rented accommodation and why the government is loathe to extend commercialisation rights to private apartments. It is also interesting to note that the government is shifting its arguments. But they aren't that strong. For instance, Martínez says that apartment rental threatens "co-existence" in apartment buildings and communities, ignoring the fact that the tenancy act permits rental of a non-commercial variety that might do just this. He is also ignoring the fact that communities can agree to there not being rentals which might otherwise disturb this co-existence.
He also says that permitting more rented accommodation would result in a saturation of resources and infrastructure. How can this possibly be the case? If a building is built, it is reasonable to assume that there are resources, otherwise why was the building built in the first place. And were the hotels to ever achieve the unlikely and to command maximum capacity with 100% occupancy, a similar saturation would occur.
Furthermore, Martínez argues that property prices would be pushed up (though the property market might also receive a boost), that there would not be quality standards as defined by the tourism law (well, impose them then) and that local authorities would lose their power to determine ratios of land for tourist accommodation (no they wouldn't because they have, in any event, to apply the quotas as agreed with the Council of Mallorca and could be given the right to deny licences).
From all this, I form the distinct impression that the government knows that it has been backed into a corner. It might have thought that its meeting the other day was the final word, but it most certainly wasn't. The arguments are now only really starting.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Showing posts with label Private apartments as tourist accommodation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Private apartments as tourist accommodation. Show all posts
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
The Non-Governing Tourism Ministry
Germà Ventayol is a columnist with "Ultima Hora". His column is entitled "Es Mussol". The owl. But mussol can also mean sty. Not a sty as in pigs but sty as in an infection on the eyelid. Through the eyes of many, and not only the owl, there is an inflammation in Mallorca's tourism industry, for which treatment seems simple but which is anything but.
On Monday, Ventayol said this: "To prohibit the commercialisation of tourist rentals is a political suicide which I cannot believe that any (political) party with a minimum of common sense would commit".
Hallelujah. Perhaps I have criticised the local Spanish press too much. Ventayol is the latest local journalist to wade in against the regional government: "the armed wing of the hoteliers", as another one has described it.
The context of Ventayol's "political suicide" is rather different to the one in which the arguments regarding the tourist renting of private accommodation are typically placed. Renting of accommodation provides "the bread" from which many families in the Balearics live. It gives money which can help finance studies for their children or the care homes for their elders.
Ventayol is making a similar point to that which Toni Reus, the mayor of Santa Margalida, has made. Reus has defended the right of an owner to supplement income through property rental and has so taken issue with the government's attitude when it comes to apartments.
The government's response to both Ventayol and Reus would be that owners do have this right, as it exists under the tenancy act. It is an argument with which we are now very familiar but it is one that is of no use to anyone who wants to optimise a return on a property by advertising it as a tourist rental and, moreover, advertising it as such through channels that will enable optimisation. It is a specious argument and one that only succeeds in adding to confusion.
The story of the tourist rental of private accommodation has long been a matter of confusion. It shouldn't be, but it has been, and the government has encouraged this confusion. It has now added to this confusion by alluding to the potential for island councils to take matters into their own hands by regulating accommodation. The government will say that it is being fair by giving the councils the chance to regulate while at the same time being as selective as it always is in citing the tenancy act. It knows full well that the Council of Mallorca doesn't want to assume any responsibility for tourism matters, so therefore this council will not regulate.
Were another council (Menorca's being the only likely one) to regulate and so permit the tourist rental of apartments, the confusion would be aggravated. It would be an absurdity were one island to have different rules to another. It would be an absurdity brought about by an abrogation of responsibility by the tourism ministry to regulate for the whole of the Balearics, but this is an abrogation which is a consequence of the ministry being too scared to adopt a common sense approach. It may be political suicide to deny commercialisation but it would be political suicide to agree to it; the hoteliers would never forgive the Partido Popular.
Carlos Delgado hastily called a meeting in August, a month when important issues are never normally considered. It was a meeting without representatives from business sectors, without even the president of the Council of Menorca. Yet, Delgado claims there is consensus: one to do nothing other than to hold out an olive branch to the island councils, one of which - Ibiza's - agrees with him and another of which - Mallorca's - doesn't want any responsibility.
The government's disingenuousness and dissembling are staggering. It boasts that some 4,500 houses have been registered in the Balearics since the passing of the 2012 tourism act. Houses, yes, but why not apartments?
The reason why has its roots in the hotel boom of the 1990s which concentrated on building self-catering apartment hotels and which led to the 1999 tourism act, the one which first prohibited commercialisation of private apartments for tourist rental. Hotelier power and hotelier objections helped formulate tourism legislation then (they hadn't bargained on there having been a similar boom in private apartments for rent) and still do. The government can't admit this, because to do so would be to admit that it doesn't run the tourism industry.
Delgado's conveniently called meeting and cynically contrived consensus have merely inflamed further a situation over which it has so little control that it seeks to let the island councils decide for it. It is no way to run a tourism industry. Not that the government does.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
On Monday, Ventayol said this: "To prohibit the commercialisation of tourist rentals is a political suicide which I cannot believe that any (political) party with a minimum of common sense would commit".
Hallelujah. Perhaps I have criticised the local Spanish press too much. Ventayol is the latest local journalist to wade in against the regional government: "the armed wing of the hoteliers", as another one has described it.
The context of Ventayol's "political suicide" is rather different to the one in which the arguments regarding the tourist renting of private accommodation are typically placed. Renting of accommodation provides "the bread" from which many families in the Balearics live. It gives money which can help finance studies for their children or the care homes for their elders.
Ventayol is making a similar point to that which Toni Reus, the mayor of Santa Margalida, has made. Reus has defended the right of an owner to supplement income through property rental and has so taken issue with the government's attitude when it comes to apartments.
The government's response to both Ventayol and Reus would be that owners do have this right, as it exists under the tenancy act. It is an argument with which we are now very familiar but it is one that is of no use to anyone who wants to optimise a return on a property by advertising it as a tourist rental and, moreover, advertising it as such through channels that will enable optimisation. It is a specious argument and one that only succeeds in adding to confusion.
The story of the tourist rental of private accommodation has long been a matter of confusion. It shouldn't be, but it has been, and the government has encouraged this confusion. It has now added to this confusion by alluding to the potential for island councils to take matters into their own hands by regulating accommodation. The government will say that it is being fair by giving the councils the chance to regulate while at the same time being as selective as it always is in citing the tenancy act. It knows full well that the Council of Mallorca doesn't want to assume any responsibility for tourism matters, so therefore this council will not regulate.
Were another council (Menorca's being the only likely one) to regulate and so permit the tourist rental of apartments, the confusion would be aggravated. It would be an absurdity were one island to have different rules to another. It would be an absurdity brought about by an abrogation of responsibility by the tourism ministry to regulate for the whole of the Balearics, but this is an abrogation which is a consequence of the ministry being too scared to adopt a common sense approach. It may be political suicide to deny commercialisation but it would be political suicide to agree to it; the hoteliers would never forgive the Partido Popular.
Carlos Delgado hastily called a meeting in August, a month when important issues are never normally considered. It was a meeting without representatives from business sectors, without even the president of the Council of Menorca. Yet, Delgado claims there is consensus: one to do nothing other than to hold out an olive branch to the island councils, one of which - Ibiza's - agrees with him and another of which - Mallorca's - doesn't want any responsibility.
The government's disingenuousness and dissembling are staggering. It boasts that some 4,500 houses have been registered in the Balearics since the passing of the 2012 tourism act. Houses, yes, but why not apartments?
The reason why has its roots in the hotel boom of the 1990s which concentrated on building self-catering apartment hotels and which led to the 1999 tourism act, the one which first prohibited commercialisation of private apartments for tourist rental. Hotelier power and hotelier objections helped formulate tourism legislation then (they hadn't bargained on there having been a similar boom in private apartments for rent) and still do. The government can't admit this, because to do so would be to admit that it doesn't run the tourism industry.
Delgado's conveniently called meeting and cynically contrived consensus have merely inflamed further a situation over which it has so little control that it seeks to let the island councils decide for it. It is no way to run a tourism industry. Not that the government does.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
The Sham Of Consensus: Holiday lets
So there we were, thinking that the Balearic Government's tourism ministry had seen the light and were about to announce some relaxation in rules regarding the renting of private apartments for tourist purposes. A consensus was being sought with town halls and the islands' councils. The meeting was planned to last only one hour, suggesting that the ministry had already come to a decision. It seemed promising, but it did of course prove to be nothing of the sort. Consensus? Not when you've already made your mind up.
Carlos Delgado, the tourism minister, argues that the 2012 tourism law has already relaxed the situation regarding private accommodation rental. He's right. It has in that it has been possible to register more houses for rental than was previously the case. But not apartments. These remain outside the law if they are being commercialised, e.g. advertised via websites as tourist accommodation. He says, and he is right, that the tenancy act allows the rental of accommodation just so long as it isn't commercialised, which is a fat lot of use for those who need to be able to advertise.
Claiming that there is a consensus is simply untrue. For a kick-off, this is not a consensus that has involved discussion with business sectors (other than the hoteliers). Secondly, of the islands' councils, Menorca's president wasn't at the meeting; Menorca had, prior to the passing of the tourism law in 2012, been pressing for a more tolerant approach. Thirdly, it is known that there are municipalities in Mallorca where the mayors do not agree with the government - Pollensa, Manacor, Santa Margalida, Andratx.
Delgado says that the island councils will be able, if they wish, to make some changes to regulation. This is because they are to be given responsibility for tourism promotion. But tourism promotion does not mean tourism accommodation. It means what is says - promotion. That is what is contained in the statute of autonomy. What would be required would be a change to islands' land plans, and these, as anyone can tell you, take years to work through the political bureaucracy, are altered when a new government comes in, are then re-altered, are blocked by legal challenges. Nothing, therefore, is likely to change, even if an individual island council wanted change. Menorca might, but it is unique. Ibiza is against change, while as for Mallorca, well the president of its council doesn't want any responsibility for tourism promotion.
Moreover, the notion of one island opting to regulate in a different way to others has in-built failure written all over it. To administer a separate regulation would require resources, which the councils do not have. A way of setting a budget would be through funding allocation via the cross-island commission (it is going to have to look at how funding for tourism promotion is decided), but if you have islands against change and another in favour, there is a recipe for failure.
If tourism promotion is being held up as the potential way out, then one now sees Salom's objection in a very different light. Was she pre-warned of this? Doubtless, she would deny it, but as she doesn't want the council to have responsibility, then it stays with the regional government. It all sounds a bit convenient and a means of avoiding conflict with the big guns of some business sectors.
Delgado's announcement is a total sham. He is talking rubbish, and he knows he is. As usual, people are being taken as idiots. Well, let's find out who the idiots are when or if tourism declines because apartments are taken off the market. It's a disgrace.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Carlos Delgado, the tourism minister, argues that the 2012 tourism law has already relaxed the situation regarding private accommodation rental. He's right. It has in that it has been possible to register more houses for rental than was previously the case. But not apartments. These remain outside the law if they are being commercialised, e.g. advertised via websites as tourist accommodation. He says, and he is right, that the tenancy act allows the rental of accommodation just so long as it isn't commercialised, which is a fat lot of use for those who need to be able to advertise.
Claiming that there is a consensus is simply untrue. For a kick-off, this is not a consensus that has involved discussion with business sectors (other than the hoteliers). Secondly, of the islands' councils, Menorca's president wasn't at the meeting; Menorca had, prior to the passing of the tourism law in 2012, been pressing for a more tolerant approach. Thirdly, it is known that there are municipalities in Mallorca where the mayors do not agree with the government - Pollensa, Manacor, Santa Margalida, Andratx.
Delgado says that the island councils will be able, if they wish, to make some changes to regulation. This is because they are to be given responsibility for tourism promotion. But tourism promotion does not mean tourism accommodation. It means what is says - promotion. That is what is contained in the statute of autonomy. What would be required would be a change to islands' land plans, and these, as anyone can tell you, take years to work through the political bureaucracy, are altered when a new government comes in, are then re-altered, are blocked by legal challenges. Nothing, therefore, is likely to change, even if an individual island council wanted change. Menorca might, but it is unique. Ibiza is against change, while as for Mallorca, well the president of its council doesn't want any responsibility for tourism promotion.
Moreover, the notion of one island opting to regulate in a different way to others has in-built failure written all over it. To administer a separate regulation would require resources, which the councils do not have. A way of setting a budget would be through funding allocation via the cross-island commission (it is going to have to look at how funding for tourism promotion is decided), but if you have islands against change and another in favour, there is a recipe for failure.
If tourism promotion is being held up as the potential way out, then one now sees Salom's objection in a very different light. Was she pre-warned of this? Doubtless, she would deny it, but as she doesn't want the council to have responsibility, then it stays with the regional government. It all sounds a bit convenient and a means of avoiding conflict with the big guns of some business sectors.
Delgado's announcement is a total sham. He is talking rubbish, and he knows he is. As usual, people are being taken as idiots. Well, let's find out who the idiots are when or if tourism declines because apartments are taken off the market. It's a disgrace.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, August 23, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - No change to Balearics tourism law on private apartments
The meeting between the tourism ministry and local government officials has ended with a decision to make no change to the current situation as it pertains to the rental of private accommodation for tourist purposes. This, it would seem, is the consensus of opinion that the ministry had been angling for.
The tourism minister Carlos Delgado says there is no need for a change as there has been more registration of private property since the 2012 tourism law was introduced, but this does not include apartments which remain, from point of view of commercialisation, illegal. There is the possibility that individual island councils, now being given responsibility for tourism promotion, can introduce their own regulations. However, Ibiza is against this while Menorca's council president didn't attend the meeting and Mallorca's president, Maria Salom, doesn't want this responsibility.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
The tourism minister Carlos Delgado says there is no need for a change as there has been more registration of private property since the 2012 tourism law was introduced, but this does not include apartments which remain, from point of view of commercialisation, illegal. There is the possibility that individual island councils, now being given responsibility for tourism promotion, can introduce their own regulations. However, Ibiza is against this while Menorca's council president didn't attend the meeting and Mallorca's president, Maria Salom, doesn't want this responsibility.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Balearic Goverment wants consensus re tourist apartment regulation
The meeting today between the tourism minister and local government officials to discuss moves to regulate tourist apartments that are currently considered to be illegal in the Balearics will only be a short one. An interpretation of this one-hour meeting is that the government has already decided on a course of action, which may involve an amendment of the 2012 Tourism Law.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
Thursday, August 22, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Government opens dialogue regarding private tourist accommodation
The pressure applied from various business sectors appears to have had some effect. The regional government tourism minister, Carlos Delgado, is to meet tomorrow with representatives of the islands' councils, town halls and the federation of local authorities to counsel views about the renting of private apartments as tourist accommodation, which is currently prohibited under Balearics law.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
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