If a week is a long time in politics, in the politics of tourism it can seem like an eternity. The negotiations regarding the formation of the next government in the Balearics drag on and on, maintaining the period of uncertainty for the island's immediate (and perhaps longer) tourism future and leaving up in the air issues to do with possible policy and current projects - anything from all-inclusives, tourist tax, legalisation of hotel places and investment to the Palacio de Congresos convention centre.
There is an admission that there are "thorny" topics that the negotiations have had to contend with. One of them is the eco-tax. Though PSOE had said in their manifesto that they would consider this, they would do so only in the context of general financing arrangements for the Balearics. If these are to alter, they won't do until after the general election. PSOE, aware of the hash that was made with the old eco-tax, would really rather not go there again unless they are forced to.
One of the issues that has received considerably less attention than others has been that of the legalisation of hotel places. You may or may not be surprised to learn that there are such things as illegal hotel places, rooms or entire floors that were created without the requisite permission having been obtained. These illegal places have been proving to be a useful little earner for the regional government: making them legal demands payment, and the funds raised have gone into the tourism ministry's special fund for use on resorts' infrastructures. Applications to legalise places have been proceeding calmly for several years. All of a sudden, however, there has been an avalanche of requests. There were almost as many in May alone as there were for 2013 and 2014 combined. The reason for this flurry of activity is obvious: hoteliers fear what a new government might do in preventing legalisation and indeed what the ultimate sanctions might be.
The hoteliers have also feverishly been putting in place what they can for projects to expand hotels. They are reckoning on restrictions being introduced but are also bargaining on the fact that any new legislation would take a few months to enact.
As yet, there is no way of knowing precisely what a regime of the left would do with regard to all-inclusives and holiday lets. On the latter, a more permissive regulatory regime would be highly likely, and APTUR, the Balearic association for holiday apartments and accommodation, has worked out that some 15,000 apartments would be legalised under changes that a pact of the left would introduce. As for all-inclusives, does one detect an attempt to pre-empt any moves on behalf of the tourism ministry, from which the minister and others will soon be departing once new government jobs have been divvied up?
The ministry has issued some stats about all-inclusives, and quite frankly they appear to be a complete work of fiction. According to the ministry, the past three years have witnessed a change in strategy on behalf of hotels, i.e. abandoning all-inclusive. So much so that all-inclusive equates to only 12% of the entire hotel stock.
First thing to ask about this is, has the ministry, therefore, received all the information about all-inclusives that it said it was going to under a registration plan announced only a few weeks ago? Seems unlikely. Second thing to say is that this registration was supposedly coming in because there hadn't previously been one. In which case, how can the ministry state with any accuracy that the last time it counted - in 2010 - all-inclusive amounted to 18% of hotel stock?
Thirdly, and rather more importantly, the ministry says that the 18% in 2010 was made up of 165 establishments in Mallorca which offered all-inclusive - a total of 81,078 hotel places. That would mean that there were in all 450,000 hotel places in Mallorca. There weren't and there still aren't: the figure is around 290,000: 30% all-inclusive is the number which has generally been quoted over the past few years
Even this number is hard to believe, and it certainly doesn't apply to specific resorts. There may indeed be some decline in the level of all-inclusive because hotels are realising they can make more money by not offering AI, but the ministry's figures are not to be believed. If the intention had been to try and make the "problem" of AI seem less great than it is, it hasn't worked.
Showing posts with label Regional government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Regional government. Show all posts
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
When Canaries Sing Rebel Songs
Spain's awkward squad has just got bigger. The latest member to join the rebel souls of Catalonia and the are-they-aren't-they's in the Basque Country is the Canary Islands which, cast adrift in the Atlantic, originally Berber African rather than Spanish, were not fully brought under the control of Castile until 1495, a necessity to facilitate the use of the islands as a stopover for Columbus's voyages. The distance from Spain makes the Canaries a curiosity of colonialism contemporised within a framework of nationhood; it's as though Iceland were a part of the UK or was still a dependency of Denmark. Far away, there is none of the geographical umbilicism that hauls the Balearics towards Barcelona and Valencia while the political cord - the current one - has been twisted; accord between Santa Cruz and Las Palmas and Madrid has been ruptured, whereas the bond between Palma and Madrid remains, generally, harmonious.
One says generally, but the Balearics have their disagreements with Madrid. Financing and oil are the two most prominent, but presidential protests are ones that play to a Balearics gallery with a plot hidden behind the act; Bauzá's ambitions to tread the corridors of Madrid power may still exist, even if they have been weakened by too much hamming it up to his Balearics audience and by his being Brutus to the Madrid-admired Caesar of Mateo Isern. By contrast, the president of the Canaries, Paulino Rivero, has no such need for the duplicitousness of the staged political plot as he owes no debt to masters in Madrid. Paulino, his party - the Coalición Canaria - indeed the whole of Canaries politics at present are symbolic of the islands' remoteness; they are as though there has been a separate development.
Rivero's political interests were initially pursued within Adolfo Suarez's post-Franco democratic union coalition. He then moved on to something called the Agrupación Tinerfeña de Independientes (Tenerife independents), a party that had links to Francoism. This then became part of a Canaries-wide independence party and ultimately became what it now is - the Coalición Canaria, an unlikely conglomeration of Canaries' nationalists, ex-commies and right-wingers. Notwithstanding the former communist element, the coalition can best be described as centre-right with its unifying theme being that of Canaries' nationalism. If one were to look for a Mallorcan comparison, it would be that of the now defunct Unió Mallorquina.
Remote from the Spanish mainland, the Canaries find themselves divorced from the political mainstream in a similar fashion to Catalonia. But unlike Catalonia, there is no agitation for independence. Instead, Paulino and his nationalist coalition seek specific rebel causes. One of these had been the oil prospecting, until Repsol discovered that the oil was far from being black gold and ceased its exploration. The coalition were not left as rebels without a cause, though. They had another one. AENA.
The government in the Canaries has taken the matter of AENA's privatisation to the Supreme Court, and it has accepted the Canaries' request to look into a Canaries' demand that the privatisation is suspended. The justification for this is two-fold. One, was an acknowledgement of a lower court that a meeting of the commission overseeing affairs between the Canaries and the state had not been called to address the management of airports in the Canaries. The second was the notice that the Canaries Government had issued in July last year of a widening of powers under its statutes of autonomy in the event that the state ceases to have direct management of airports. What this all boils down to is the fact that the Canaries Government wants to have management of its eight airports, two of which - Gran Canaria and Tenerife South - are treated by AENA in the same way as Palma in that their taxes are the same.
It is difficult to see how the privatisation could be suspended given that shares are now on the market, but the court could, in principle, agree with the Canaries' argument. AENA, for its part, says that direct state management hasn't ceased because national government still holds a majority of shares. But whatever the outcome, there is a marked difference between the Canaries and the Balearics. The Bauzá government has mumbled about having management of the airports, and especially Palma, but has done absolutely nothing about it. Rivero has, and one can attribute this to the fact that, unlike Bauzá and the Balearics PP, he and his coalition are independent of Madrid. As such, one can argue that Rivero is genuinely sticking up for regional interests, whereas Bauzá merely alludes to them.
Even if the court dismisses the Canaries' claim, the point will have been made, and it is one that goes to the heart of state-regions' relationships and political associations. The Canaries can sing rebel songs, while the Balearics hum, not having the courage to sing the words.
One says generally, but the Balearics have their disagreements with Madrid. Financing and oil are the two most prominent, but presidential protests are ones that play to a Balearics gallery with a plot hidden behind the act; Bauzá's ambitions to tread the corridors of Madrid power may still exist, even if they have been weakened by too much hamming it up to his Balearics audience and by his being Brutus to the Madrid-admired Caesar of Mateo Isern. By contrast, the president of the Canaries, Paulino Rivero, has no such need for the duplicitousness of the staged political plot as he owes no debt to masters in Madrid. Paulino, his party - the Coalición Canaria - indeed the whole of Canaries politics at present are symbolic of the islands' remoteness; they are as though there has been a separate development.
Rivero's political interests were initially pursued within Adolfo Suarez's post-Franco democratic union coalition. He then moved on to something called the Agrupación Tinerfeña de Independientes (Tenerife independents), a party that had links to Francoism. This then became part of a Canaries-wide independence party and ultimately became what it now is - the Coalición Canaria, an unlikely conglomeration of Canaries' nationalists, ex-commies and right-wingers. Notwithstanding the former communist element, the coalition can best be described as centre-right with its unifying theme being that of Canaries' nationalism. If one were to look for a Mallorcan comparison, it would be that of the now defunct Unió Mallorquina.
Remote from the Spanish mainland, the Canaries find themselves divorced from the political mainstream in a similar fashion to Catalonia. But unlike Catalonia, there is no agitation for independence. Instead, Paulino and his nationalist coalition seek specific rebel causes. One of these had been the oil prospecting, until Repsol discovered that the oil was far from being black gold and ceased its exploration. The coalition were not left as rebels without a cause, though. They had another one. AENA.
The government in the Canaries has taken the matter of AENA's privatisation to the Supreme Court, and it has accepted the Canaries' request to look into a Canaries' demand that the privatisation is suspended. The justification for this is two-fold. One, was an acknowledgement of a lower court that a meeting of the commission overseeing affairs between the Canaries and the state had not been called to address the management of airports in the Canaries. The second was the notice that the Canaries Government had issued in July last year of a widening of powers under its statutes of autonomy in the event that the state ceases to have direct management of airports. What this all boils down to is the fact that the Canaries Government wants to have management of its eight airports, two of which - Gran Canaria and Tenerife South - are treated by AENA in the same way as Palma in that their taxes are the same.
It is difficult to see how the privatisation could be suspended given that shares are now on the market, but the court could, in principle, agree with the Canaries' argument. AENA, for its part, says that direct state management hasn't ceased because national government still holds a majority of shares. But whatever the outcome, there is a marked difference between the Canaries and the Balearics. The Bauzá government has mumbled about having management of the airports, and especially Palma, but has done absolutely nothing about it. Rivero has, and one can attribute this to the fact that, unlike Bauzá and the Balearics PP, he and his coalition are independent of Madrid. As such, one can argue that Rivero is genuinely sticking up for regional interests, whereas Bauzá merely alludes to them.
Even if the court dismisses the Canaries' claim, the point will have been made, and it is one that goes to the heart of state-regions' relationships and political associations. The Canaries can sing rebel songs, while the Balearics hum, not having the courage to sing the words.
Monday, October 07, 2013
The Forgotten Islands Of State Investment
It may have slipped under the radar, and slipping under the radar may well have been what the regional government might have hoped. While it has been engaged in its war with the teachers, the national budget was announced, an element of which is the annual divvying up of state funds for investments to the country's regional administrations. The budget for the Balearics is down. Down again. President Bauzá might wish to make political capital by deflecting any blame from himself by casting blame on his masters in Madrid, but he is of the same party. He is party therefore to the philosophy of economic management through austerity. It's tough being PP regional president when you are so identified with the national strategy.
Hoping the budget might slip under the radar would be as a result of the criticisms levelled at the president last year. The opposition argued then that a paltry investment by Madrid was because of the inexperience of both Bauzá and the then finance minister Josep Aguiló. Regional presidents have to fight their corner, and fighting the corner has never been tougher than in these tough economic times. Yet, not all regions end up with sums as paltry as those destined for the Balearics and not all regions have this year seen a reduction to their budgets.
To be fair, the 5.7% cut to the Balearics budget is nothing when compared with the 25.5% reduction that Catalonia is going to have to endure. And before any conclusions based on Catalonia's arguments with Madrid are drawn from this substantial cut, it might be noted that quiet Asturias has had the largest cut of all - 31.6%. But percentage reductions tell only part of the story. While 5.7% is not too far away from the average budget reduction for the regions (7.1%), in absolute terms the Balearics investment budget is tiny. It stands at a little over 0.6% of the total investment directed by national government to the autonomous communities. Andalusia, as an example and as the recipient of the largest share of state funds, gets 17.3%, but then Andalusia is a pretty big region. A more meaningful comparison where the Balearics are concerned is with the Canary Islands. They are unhappy there, too. A fall of 4.8% is not, however, as great as that in the Balearics budget, while the Canaries will in fact receive a sum more than four times greater than the Balearics; it is 2.7% of the total investment to the different regions.
If one goes back to times before crisis, in 2007 the budget for the Balearics was 217.7 million euros, more or less three times higher than the 74 million that the islands will get in 2014. The Balearics budget has tended to be one of the lowest among the regions but not as low as it now is. Go back a further ten years to 1997 and while the amount was lower than in 2007 it was greater than those for Cantabria, Asturias, the Basque Country, Murcia and Extremadura. Each of these regions has since and for quite some number of years left the Balearics trailing a considerable distance behind.
There are many different explanations as to why the regions' budgets should be as they are and why there were as they were in the past, while over the period from 1997 to 2007 the Balearics budget fluctuated considerably between a low of 110.6 million euros in 1998 and a high of 265.3 million in 2003. An average of 205 million for the period has now been slashed by almost two-thirds, and by comparison with other regions the Balearics have in more recent years been dealt a far more parsimonious hand. The rot really set in in 2010 when the budget reduction for the Balearics was the largest for any region - almost a quarter - and it has been falling ever since.
Bauzá cannot therefore be blamed for what was a trend before he became president. It may be that inexperience might have led him not to have pressed for greater investment last year, but he now has more experience as well as the experience of the criticism that came his way because of last year's low budget. But there may be some justification for one explanation advanced for the low budget - that Bauzá is simply too compliant with Madrid in all sorts of ways. Were he more awkward or awkward at all, he might and so the Balearics might fare better. Or perhaps there is another explanation, one offered by the region's finance minister, José Vicente Marí, that in Madrid they have forgotten that the Balearics exist.
Hoping the budget might slip under the radar would be as a result of the criticisms levelled at the president last year. The opposition argued then that a paltry investment by Madrid was because of the inexperience of both Bauzá and the then finance minister Josep Aguiló. Regional presidents have to fight their corner, and fighting the corner has never been tougher than in these tough economic times. Yet, not all regions end up with sums as paltry as those destined for the Balearics and not all regions have this year seen a reduction to their budgets.
To be fair, the 5.7% cut to the Balearics budget is nothing when compared with the 25.5% reduction that Catalonia is going to have to endure. And before any conclusions based on Catalonia's arguments with Madrid are drawn from this substantial cut, it might be noted that quiet Asturias has had the largest cut of all - 31.6%. But percentage reductions tell only part of the story. While 5.7% is not too far away from the average budget reduction for the regions (7.1%), in absolute terms the Balearics investment budget is tiny. It stands at a little over 0.6% of the total investment directed by national government to the autonomous communities. Andalusia, as an example and as the recipient of the largest share of state funds, gets 17.3%, but then Andalusia is a pretty big region. A more meaningful comparison where the Balearics are concerned is with the Canary Islands. They are unhappy there, too. A fall of 4.8% is not, however, as great as that in the Balearics budget, while the Canaries will in fact receive a sum more than four times greater than the Balearics; it is 2.7% of the total investment to the different regions.
If one goes back to times before crisis, in 2007 the budget for the Balearics was 217.7 million euros, more or less three times higher than the 74 million that the islands will get in 2014. The Balearics budget has tended to be one of the lowest among the regions but not as low as it now is. Go back a further ten years to 1997 and while the amount was lower than in 2007 it was greater than those for Cantabria, Asturias, the Basque Country, Murcia and Extremadura. Each of these regions has since and for quite some number of years left the Balearics trailing a considerable distance behind.
There are many different explanations as to why the regions' budgets should be as they are and why there were as they were in the past, while over the period from 1997 to 2007 the Balearics budget fluctuated considerably between a low of 110.6 million euros in 1998 and a high of 265.3 million in 2003. An average of 205 million for the period has now been slashed by almost two-thirds, and by comparison with other regions the Balearics have in more recent years been dealt a far more parsimonious hand. The rot really set in in 2010 when the budget reduction for the Balearics was the largest for any region - almost a quarter - and it has been falling ever since.
Bauzá cannot therefore be blamed for what was a trend before he became president. It may be that inexperience might have led him not to have pressed for greater investment last year, but he now has more experience as well as the experience of the criticism that came his way because of last year's low budget. But there may be some justification for one explanation advanced for the low budget - that Bauzá is simply too compliant with Madrid in all sorts of ways. Were he more awkward or awkward at all, he might and so the Balearics might fare better. Or perhaps there is another explanation, one offered by the region's finance minister, José Vicente Marí, that in Madrid they have forgotten that the Balearics exist.
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