The Biel Barceló Legacy

Biel Barceló was in the grand tradition of Balearic tourism ministers. He resigned. Yet resignation after only two and a half years in office can still bring with it a legacy. It may not be a fully fulfilled legacy, but it can be legacy nonetheless. Carlos Delgado bequeathed the "ley Delgado", the 2012 tourism law that Barceló spent much of his period as minister attempting to alter. In the process, he will go down in the annals as the minister who introduced the second ecotax and who incurred the wrath of holiday rentals liberals. In Balearic tourism ministry terms, he achieved much, even if there will be many who would prefer that he had departed without having left any legacy at all.

Tourism was always going to be his job to have, once Més, PSOE and Podemos had struck their agreement for government in 2015. Onto tourism he grafted his pet topic of innovation and research, and thus formed a ministry in his own image, and that of Més. The opprobrium directed towards Barceló regarding rentals and the tax is not justifiable in personal terms. If one cares to look at the Més manifesto for 2015, one will discover that both were on the agenda, although both - it is probably fair to say - have developed in ways that hadn't necessarily been envisaged.

For a doubling of the tourist tax, one really has to blame Podemos and the gun it held to the government over the budget. Barceló had, in the months after the tax had been introduced, been distinctly equivocal on whether it would go up. There was no room for equivocation when the barrels of Podemos were pointed.

As for the rentals legislation, I maintain that this took a course that hadn't been foreseen. Més were committed to legislate, but this was because the Partido Popular had failed to do so. PSOE agreed with them. There had to be new regulations, and these would have been drafted in a different fashion had it not been for the sudden explosion caused by the perfect storm of Airbnb (and others) and the massive demand for the Balearics that stemmed from Mediterranean geopolitics. Contrary to what anyone might believe, Més would have adopted a more relaxed attitude to regulation, if only because the PP had been illiberal.

That the legislation has become a complete dog's breakfast doesn't reflect well on Barceló, but again he can't be singled out. Podemos caused their own havoc, and the involvement of the Council of Mallorca and its incomprehensible zoning has just added to it. Fundamentally, however, Barceló was right. Things had got totally out of hand. Order had to be established, and the Balearics have been no different to many other places where Airbnb has completely disrupted the residential market.

He got things wrong with a failure to make immediate and forceful condemnations of bouts of anti-tourism and with going on about saturation. Both failures merely fed a growing antagonism towards tourism, but a response - setting limits on the number of tourists - was hardly the radical proposal that has been portrayed. Limits have been on the table for years; even the PP (Delgado) alluded to the potential need.

A further response is the frankly laughable notion that tourists will opt to come to the Balearics at times other than the summer. The Better in Winter campaign suffers because of its very slogan, as it begs the alternative - worse in summer. But any gains that might be claimed because of this campaign are questionable. A lengthening of the season has occurred because of increased demand resulting from the geopolitics, because of the ever greater momentum in niche products such as cycling and hiking that owes virtually nothing to government policy, and simply because of a greatly improved economic climate.

The only body which can genuinely be held up as having made a difference is the Palma 365 Foundation, of which the government isn't a part. And it most certainly has benefited from good press. That famous article about Palma in The Sunday Times was by a journalist who is well known to the Mallorca Tourist Board, a private organisation that promotes the island; so not, therefore, the government.

That article just goes to highlight an area where Barceló failed, just as ministers have in the past. Communications are hopeless. There is still no coherent approach to social media. The website for explaining how the tourist tax is spent was and is an utter embarrassment, and when the tax was introduced, he insisted on references to small percentages to be added to the overall cost of the holiday rather than appealing to the tourist's heart.

Has he left a legacy? We may start to get an idea next year, as his period as minister may have been when the mass in mass tourism was put into reverse. He hands over to Bel Busquets, a secondary school teacher by profession.

The Wages Of Biel Barceló

Mallorca's hoteliers are mightily generous. They've agreed a 17% pay increase over four years. An agreement? More a case of the unions snapping their hands off before there was any chance to backtrack. The unions couldn't believe the offer. They'd been wanting 10%.

The agreement came out of the blue. The negotiations, we had understood, weren't due to start until after the season had finished. It was a surprise when the agreement was announced and an even bigger surprise when the size of the pay increase was known. The president of the Menorca hoteliers summed things up. It had all been done so quickly that it was a done deal by the time the other islands were told about it. Their hoteliers aren't bound by the agreement but they're not left with much wriggle room now that Mallorca has set the bar so high.

The surprise was compounded by the knowledge that there was a separate group of hoteliers which had been agitating for something modest. These were the smaller chains, the ones without pockets as deep as the like of Iberostar and Meliá. The smaller hotel chains are also less in the political firing-line than the large groups.

The agreement, with Inma Benito - now at Iberostar - leading the way for the Mallorca federation, looks increasingly as though it was a deliberate political manoeuvre. The government can suddenly be friends again. Moreover, Iberostar won't be troubled by any potential industrial unrest next year. Nor will the other hoteliers. It was the last thing, and I stress the last thing, that could have been contemplated. With everything else of a tourism nature that is flying around, strikes in hotels would have been the final straw.

Having signed on the dotted line with the unions, one headache for the tourism industry is removed, albeit that not all hoteliers are happy with the agreement and that the rest of the hospitality sector, such as the restaurants which are party to the same collective bargaining arrangement, have refused to sign. They had said that they couldn't accept the 10% let alone 17%.

Eliminating headaches is a way of defining this agreement. There are enough as it is, and the season for the travel fairs is almost upon the industry and the government. In London in November there can at least be assurance that there won't be strikes in hotels. There's going to need to be a heck of a lot more assurance.

One of those who will be attempting to give this assurance is Biel Barceló. As far as he is concerned, the wage agreement is a sign of the confidence that the hotel sector has in the future of the tourism industry in the Balearics. (The hoteliers in the other islands might like to note that he said the Balearics rather than just Mallorca.) Here's a message he can take to London. Look at the confidence; it's worth 17%.

Although the word from the Balearic government has been about trying to smooth the influx of tourists, it is understood that the tourism industry - tour operators, for example - was nevertheless surprised if not alarmed by what was being said last week about reducing numbers in the summer. Barceló has a lot of explaining to do when he gets to London, and the omens for his explanations aren't that positive.

He was explaining in The Bulletin at the weekend and he had my jaw dropping lower and lower. Only five or six complaints about the tourist tax? Only two thousand people might be deterred from coming because of a doubling of the rate? So it isn't a tax for dissuading tourists, when he has said in the past, inter alia, that the tax is a tool for regulating the flow of tourists? There won't be a doubling between October and April. Isn't October part of the main season? Hasn't the actual application of a winter rate still to be decided? The tourist tax is the lowest in Europe. Catalonia, anyone? Croatia, anybody else? Tax revenue of 74 million euros has been invested in the tourist industry. Where did that figure come from? And which tourist industry is this exactly? One that includes water systems in and around Maria and Llubi? Well, he is also the president of the committee which decides how the tourist tax is spent.

Then there was the killer. "It's not a question of having fewer people during the summer." If this isn't the question, then what is it? At the Night of Tourism last Wednesday, Barceló said: "We need to improve demand and increase quality, spending per tourist and the satisfaction of visitors." In order to be more sustainable, we have to "decrease in summer and move tourists to the winter".

Yes, the hoteliers have provided a good message (though what it means for prices is another matter), but as to the others - who can tell.

A Red Carnation For A Tourist

As sure as night follows day, so philia follows phobia. Or should this be the other way round? Yes it should. There was a great deal of philia daylight before phobia darkness set in. And in case anyone had forgotten this, the Magic Costa Blanca hotel chain decided to remind them. On Tuesday, it staged a day of "tourismphilia".

As its name suggests, the chain concentrates on the Costa Blanca - Benidorm, for instance. This is an area of Spain, so the president of the Valencia regional government has been at pains to point out, which hasn't experienced tourismphobia. Ximo Puig, for it is he, has been singled out for praise in making noises different to certain other politicians. There is not one tourist too many in the Valencia region, Ximo has observed. Benidorm is not for phobia. In fact, bring on ever more tourists. There's a lot of all-inclusive awaiting them.

Tuesday, the public holiday for the Assumption, is an emblematic day in the Spanish tourism calendar. Thus explained Magic Costa Blanca's vice-president. It is the absolute height of summer. Around this date, the statisticians in the Balearics will have been poring over figures in preparing themselves to announce the day on which there were more people on the islands than on any other day. The Balearic politicians will hardly be able to contain themselves. How many more were there? Saturation, massification, blah, blah.

In Valencia, on the other hand, they opted - well, Magic Costa Blanca did - to focus on actions to "counteract the stupid campaign" in parts of the country. Javier García, the VP, explained that the hotel chain wanted to tell tourists that Spain wants tourists, that they will be taken care of in their pursuit of happiness. One way that they are able to is at the Middle Ages-themed Magic Robin Hood. Very Spanish, but then Spaniards know him from films.

All staff - from receptionists to waiters, cooks, cleaning staff and management - were handing out red carnations and asking for hugs. It was a way of "sealing friendship" of showing a "special feeling of respect and affection" that tourists always deserve. Friendship: a tourist, a friend as the old motto goes. The red carnation should become a symbol of tourism, García suggested, and good for him. Alcudia holds its tourism day at the end of the month. Will they be handing out red carnations?

In Ibiza, the president of the island's council who is also responsible for tourism, made reference to that old motto the other day. Messages, he said, must be positive. That campaign of friendship can't be forgotten. Vicent Torres added that there isn't tourismphobia in Ibiza. Or at least it hasn't been exhibited, thus contradicting certain elements of the media which suggest that it has been.

Torres added that in order to prevent this phobia, order needs to be created. Ibiza, it has been well reported, has a greater issue with housing than Mallorca. As an island there is only so much capacity. Mallorca is the same, just on a larger scale. The situations are somewhat different in both islands to that of Valencia. The island's president went on to explain that this order should come from a cap on the number of tourist places, and he had illegal holiday rentals firmly in mind. He made an interesting further observation, which was that way back when Gabriel Cañellas (of the Partido Popular) was president of the Balearics there was a move to limit the growth in the number of places. In the all current discussion of limits etc., the left is getting some criticism for wanting limits, when the right - the PP - first established the notion. The PP also referred to this in its 1999 tourism law. Later, when Carlos Delgado was tourism minister, he spoke about the possible need to reduce places.

Just placing limits on tourists won't make the kind of tourismphobia displayed by Arran and their chums disappear. That's because their agenda is much broader and isn't by any means focused only on tourism; they have used tourism for their own political, independence aims. But limits, to me, seem eminently logical. Can there be such a thing as too many tourists? Yes, there can be, and even tourists themselves - as shown from different surveys - think so.

In Valencia they've made a nice gesture. Torres in Ibiza is addressing the issue of tourismphobia in a sensible fashion. But much other reaction has been hysterical, and this includes Madrid. We have the secretary-of-state for tourism (for whom judgement is well and truly being reserved) confirming that the attorney-general is getting involved in pursuing anti-tourism protesters. What do they want to do? Create martyrs? Because that's exactly what the far-left, independence-agitating minor minority craves.

There's something of a summer madness. Keep calm and hand out red carnations.

The Podemos Influence On Tourism Policy

Podemos have been threatening to scupper the government's holiday rentals' legislation. They have engaged in brinkmanship grandstanding in the past, as with the tourist tax law, and so have earned the criticism of the Partido Popular for "crying wolf" because they don't see their threats through. Things are unlikely to be any different this time.

The reasons for this latest bout of messing with the PSOE (PSIB) and Més government are twofold. Podemos insist that the government doesn't appreciate the scale of the problems with finding residential accommodation and that the legislation doesn't do anything to bring down the cost of renting or indeed purchasing. Nor does the law guarantee a right to housing. The second reason is that Podemos are demanding that the law includes a declaration of a housing emergency in Palma and Ibiza. This would entail the total prohibition of holiday rentals.

From a legislative point of view, Podemos are blurring two strands - one has to do with holiday rentals, the other with housing. There are two separate pieces of legislation going before the Balearic parliament. In essence, what Podemos would like is a unified bill, but this won't happen, much though - and Podemos would be right in this regard - the two strands are clearly linked. The government, meantime, justifiably argues that there would be encroachment into powers of town halls and island councils. Were there to be, then the legislation could end up becoming mired in the courts. It might do anyway, but for other reasons.

In fact, both Palma town hall and the Council of Ibiza have indicated they will use provisions in the new bill to severely restrict rentals. A specific declaration regarding emergency housing wouldn't therefore be necessary.

Previous experience suggests that when push comes to shove and votes are finally cast, Podemos will allow the legislation to go through. Although Podemos have been engaged in their usual last-minute attempts at horse-trading, the bill will surely be approved. Different alterations to the legislation should enable this. One is to increase the fine on websites like Airbnb for publicising unlicensed properties to 400,000 euros. Another is to give owners the chance of offsetting fines of up to 40,000 euros by providing so-called social rental.

The approval on Tuesday, assuming it does indeed go through, will be three days before PSOE (PSIB) convene for their congress. As mentioned in a previous article, this congress will be crucial for the party in mapping out its strategy leading up to the 2019 election. Central to this strategy will be issues related to tourism.

For Francina Armengol to secure a second term as president, a new "pact" will have to be arrived at. This is a cold fact for PSOE, as it is never in a position to get close to a majority: the Partido Popular is far too strong for this to ever happen. The congress will therefore have to take into account what the relationship with other parties might look like, with the Podemos relationship key to Armengol's ability to continue as president.

The PP could return with a majority, as it has in the past, but this is by no means certain. For all the at-times chaotic appearance of the current government, it has nevertheless presided over a period of improved economic conditions. The PP will attack it on jobs and on pay, but the electorate are unlikely to be convinced that the PP would do any better. In this respect, Armengol will be hoping that next year's wage negotiations and settlement for the hotel and hospitality sector bring about improved terms. Just as important, as mentioned before, will be any agreement on a special economic regime for the Balearics. A good one, and the PP will find it that much tougher to win.

The nature of the current pact or of a future one will, nevertheless, be an ingredient for the electorate to consider. When it comes to tourism policy, the tourist tax won't -as it stands - be a factor. In 2003, when the PP came back to power, it was an issue, as the electorate were concerned by an impact on tourism. Circumstances are quite different now. A Podemos demand for a doubling in the rate of the tax - a stipulation made for the party approving next year's budget - might be something for the public to baulk at. Or it might not be, given the "saturation" narrative.

Podemos do have the power to influence policy, and this can be seen in what the congress will consider in respect of limits on the number of tourists. PSOE, it is understood, is to change its tune. The congress will consider a limit on summer tourism numbers. A "battery" of proposals are to be presented in order to achieve a limit. The tourist tax is likely to be one of them. A doubling, and Podemos will take the credit.