THE BEST FINANCE NEWS ON PAGES 12 - 15 Issue No. 1909
3 - 9 February 2022
Holiday top spot ACCORDING to the Hotel Occupancy Survey pub‐ lished by the National In‐ stitute of Statistics (INE), Calvia had the highest av‐ erage rate of tourist occu‐ pancy by overnight stays in Spain during 2021, with 57.4 per cent. The council and the hos‐ pitality industry were pleased to view this data which the council says highlights the recovery ex‐ perienced by the tourism sector, placing the munici‐ pality of Calvia at the head, in terms of occupan‐ cy, of all the tourist spots in Spain. In addition to the aver‐ age occupancy rate, Calvia also recorded good figures regarding the total num‐ ber of overnight stays in 2021 which, although still far less than pre‐pandemic years, placed the destina‐ tion in sixth place com‐ pared to other destina‐ tions, with 3,579,785 overnight stays. Other data highlighted by the INE report noted that the average length of stay of tourists, 5.76 days, saw the destination amongst the top 10 holi‐ day spots and was well above the national aver‐ age that stood at 2.85 days. A total of 621,718 visi‐ tors stayed in the munici‐ pality of which 86.42 per cent were foreigners, and the rest were Spanish resi‐ dents.
MALLORCA • WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
CALLING OUT FOR FUNDS
Credit: Balearic Government
NEW PROPOSAL: Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs, Rosario Sánchez.
ON Monday January 31, the Balearic Min‐ istry of Finance and Foreign Affairs published a 58‐page document making recommenda‐ tions concerning the way in which funding is allocated by the National Government. There are a number of criteria, based on area and size of population, but according to this document the Balearics should be treat‐ ed differently to mainland Autonomous Communities due to the extra cost of main‐ taining facilities across the four main islands. The fact that the islands are relatively close to each other does not mean that transports costs are accordingly low and the government also has to subsidise the move‐ ment of passengers between the islands. Perhaps most important however is the fact that there is a huge transient population which whilst bringing prosperity to some sections of industry when tourism is in ‘full swing’, it also causes a major drain on facili‐ ties such as health, water, refuse disposal and policing which has to be born by the en‐ tire population, not just those who benefit from tourism.
To this end therefore and with the knowl‐ edge of the municipalities and the various political parties across the islands, the min‐ istry urges the National Government to agree to create a formula whereby an aver‐ age transient population figure is recognised and included in the population count. Referring back decades to a previously re‐ jected request, this document suggests that when calculating the area of the Balearics for financial support calculations, it would be ap‐ propriate to include the area of sea sur‐ rounding and between each island. In the case of Autonomous Communities completely on land, the area is measured and funding is based on that area occupied by the community, but for those who are resident there, movement is relatively easy and inexpensive when compared to costs facing those in the Balearics. Whilst this latter option may not be ac‐ ceptable to the National Government, it is hoped that an element of forgiveness of public debt will also be agreed in light of the information contained in the proposal.
FREE • GRATIS
LGTBQ+ TOURISM MALLORCA sets its cap at the LGTBQ+ tourist mar‐ ket which is expected to see around 180 million travellers annually by 2030 according to the World Tourism Organisation. Realistically, there are many countries throughout the world who still don’t welcome Rainbow trav‐ ellers so many destinations are anxious to ensure that they are able to offer a safe and welcoming en‐ vironment. The Department of Transition, Tourism and Sports of the Consell de Mallorca has started a project to develop a strategy to promote the island and has appointed the company Queer Destinations, experts in consulting, marketing and training, to promote a tourism product focused on this community. In the meantime, the Consell de Mallorca has re‐ inforced its commitment to defending the rights of the LGTBQ+ community by doubling the hours of face‐to‐face care of the Comprehensive Care Service for the LGTBQ+ community (SAI). In Palma, Inca and Manacor, it will now more than double the hours of attention going from 16 hours a week to 37 hours.