TOURISM AND ITS LIMITS

Since the first tourist boom in the 1960s, the truth is that, with a few exceptions, such as the SARS-COVID-19 pandemic, the number of tourists visiting the Balearic Islands each year has grown, reaching more than 17 million travelers in 2023.

This increase in the number of tourists has been accompanied by an equally constant rise in authorized tourist vacancies, reaching or exceeding six hundred thousand.

These alarming data and forecasts for 2024 have provoked an intense debate on the overcrowding of tourism, its effects, and the possibility of setting limits to tourism. It is a necessary debate that requires objective data and metrics that allow reflection and the adoption of effective measures to control its negative externalities.

The reality is so evident that no one doubts we have exceeded the carrying capacity. On the one hand, there are the residents, and on the other, the tourists. The number of residents will continue to increase, not because of the difference between births and deaths but because of the immigration we receive. Demographic data show a population increase in the islands of more than 300,000 people this century, and the Consell Economic I Social de les Illes Balears (CES) forecasts an increase of around 150,000 people in the next decade.

It is here where the role of the autonomous legislator comes into play, who, despite the abundant regulations produced in recent years, has not been able or has not known how to provide an adequate response to the new existing realities, generating rules that are in many points ambiguous, dispersed and excessively complex, which have not materialized in appreciable results.

Thus, the legal modifications made in the area of tourism have been more aimed at satisfying specific needs or specific problems that have arisen at any given time than at adequately and globally organizing what is the main driving force of our economy.

Thus, after the repeal of the Tourism Supply Master Plan (POOT) by Law 8/2012 of July 19, 2012, on Tourism of the Balearic Islands, the Island Territorial Plans and the Plans of Intervention in Tourist Areas were established as the ideal instruments to carry out the tourist planning of the territory, allowing them to establish the maximum global density of population, to delimit tourist and protection zones and areas and to fix their size and characteristics, and to establish minimum parameters of surface, volumetry, buildability and equipment, establishing the necessary exceptions. These instruments would fix the tourist ratio by identifying the unique characteristics of the islands and the municipalities and delimiting zones suitable for tourist and interrelated uses.

Following the amendment of the Tourism Law operated by law 6/2017 of July 31, it was established that such instruments could also determine the maximum limit per island of tourist places in tourist accommodations and the maximum limit of places in residential dwellings susceptible to be commercialized for tourism, depending on the existing island resources, infrastructures, population densities and other relevant parameters of their scope.

However, despite the fundamental importance of such instruments to organize the tourist offer, the truth is that the first of them, the PIAT of Menorca, was not approved until 2018, and the PIAT of Mallorca was finally approved on July 16, 2020, and neither those of Ibiza nor Formentera have been approved to date.

The fact that more than six years have passed since the approval of the Tourism Law and the repeal of the POOT, during which time the management of the tourist offer has lacked systematic regulation, together with the fact that, to date, there are still islands that have not developed the plans as mentioned above, is in itself sufficiently revealing of the magnitude of the problem in a territory in which tourism is its fundamental driving force.

The issue is further complicated because the municipalities have assumed powers in urban and planning matters.

And despite the time elapsed, the problems remain the same. We know that many tourists come, but we need to know precisely how many or how they are distributed and, more importantly, their impact on the territory and society. In the opinion of the undersigned, this is due to two factors. On the one hand, the worrying lack of objective and reliable information on essential data from which to start (carrying capacity, available places, etc...) and, on the other hand, the inaction of the public authorities in addressing the phenomenon from a global and long-term perspective. This task is highly complex but, in any case, necessary.

It is difficult to understand that, to date, despite being primary data from which to start any regulation that is intended to be undertaken, the "tourist carrying capacity" of the islands, understood as the maximum number of people, in this case, tourists, that they can accommodate, is still unknown. This is a fundamental concept that must necessarily be the starting point for any regulation to be implemented. Despite this, the first additional provision of Decree-Law 3/2022 of February 11 again "reminded" the Consells of their obligation to evaluate or re-evaluate the carrying capacity of their islands, granting them four years, two of which have already elapsed.

Having said the above, there is no doubt that the Tourism Law articulates various mechanisms to organize tourism in the islands. However, the peculiarities and characteristics of each of them require adequate development at the regulatory and municipal level, which has been conspicuous by its absence, and successive decrees have faced the alterations that have arisen.

This lack of data or information can also be predicted concerning the total number of available tourist vacancies, which last year was set at more than six hundred thousand legal vacancies. However, what percentage of these vacancies are not actually on the market? This is, among others, the case of vacancies corresponding to tourist apartment complexes which, despite having become residential, continue to be registered in the registers, or of obsolete or closed establishments or whose owners decide not to offer them on the market (in the case of tourist housing).

Therefore, we can observe that the legislator has articulated instruments that could be effective in dealing with the problem (as is the case of zoning, the establishment of ceilings on the number of vacancies or density or intensity indexes, among others) and that reveal that it is possible to set limits on tourism. Still, it is complicated, if possible, to adopt effective measures to alleviate the harmful effects of tourism if there are no minimum data from which to start.

Of course, limiting the number of passengers to reduce the DEMAND is not an option: the Treaty of the European Union and its rules on the free movement of people oppose it, although it would be admissible within the framework of a negotiation with the EU, to limit the acquisition of second homes to European citizens (not Spanish) who can prove a minimum number of years of adequate residence in the Balearic Islands. In this line, the ex-counselor Cladera recently, in an article in the press, pointed out the decrease of the slots in the airport in agreement with AENA. Still, the consequences of this decision would be difficult since they would lead to a reduction in the lodging offer and a notable increase in unemployment, which is why he discarded it. 

Some less aggressive and burdensome measures have proven to be effective, such as the imposition of tourist taxes (the famous eco-tax), the establishment of quota systems to access certain places, and the limitation of the number of rental cars in Formentera.

If we choose to reduce the OFFER, following the comments of former minister Cladera, the main tool for this would be eliminating the stock of tourist vacancies and encouraging the removal of buildings and legal housing for tourist use. Each Consell Insular should create an autonomous, agile, and proactive organism that analyzes each tourist zone and negotiates with the interested ones. This organism should have a budget with the money collected by the Tax on Tourist Stays, created for objectives such as this one. Once an agreement has been reached between the interested party and the Commission, the Consell Insular and the City Council should agree on the change of use and the final destination of the building, which could be, among others, the transformation of the building into social housing or its direct elimination to create sponge areas.

Within the policy to reduce the OFFER, we must recognize the need to act with sufficient means and in a remarkable way on the illegal offer. For it, it is considered not only necessary but indispensable to extend notorious form the teams of tourist inspection of every Insular Consell since, nowadays, in spite of its reinforcement, the means are scarce, and the picaresque of the offerers is unimaginable, and every day new, and therefore, the fight against the illegal offer is not totally effective.

The above-mentioned measures to reduce the legal supply could be adopted through a Decree in a few weeks. These measures would be compatible with the reflection that will be done in the framework of the Social Pact for the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the Balearic Islands, which was activated on May 22, 2024. We can expect a report by the end of 2024.

The combination of both actions can guarantee that tourist places are reduced and affordable housing is created for residents. If both are achieved, we are guaranteeing a SUSTAINABLE Balearic Islands, which is the ultimate goal.    

Illeslex Abogados

Javier Blas Guasp

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