Employers (Fomento de Turismo, Pimeef, CAEB, Ocio de Ibiza and Chamber of Commerce), Consell de Ibiza and the five municipalities promised yesterday to “join forces” to solve the current problems on the island. They did so after holding an extraordinary Council of Mayors, at the request of entrepreneurs, in which they put four issues on the table of particular concern: intrusiveness, the insularity bonus and the Special Regime of the Balearic Islands (REB), the works at the airport and the Imserso campaign.
According to the president of the Consell, Vicent Marí, intrusion is the “most worrying” problem during this tourist season and, as he recalled, occurs in several sectors: transport, holiday rentals, festivals and trade. “It is the municipalities that have the powers in terms of activities, but theirs is to join efforts to reverse the situation,” he said.
Marí also lamented that part of the “saturation” that exists on Ibiza is the result of illegal activity, so the employers were in favor of carrying out a public-private partnership to address it.
Among the issues discussed, the president of the Consell also reiterated the need to stabilize civil servant staff assigned to the island. “The high cost of housing and the high cost of living do not help, so the insularity bonus is necessary,” he stressed. The reality is, he said, that “many staff are at a lower than desirable percentage”.
The manager of Pimeef, Mari Àngels Marí, who demanded the approval of the bonus, the REB and a Special Tax Regime, also spoke along these lines. “The insularity bonus is necessary for the public administration, but also for the private sector”, she remarked.
Ibiza Airport
Another of the issues of concern are the works at the airport that, in Marí’s opinion, “do not leave the most desirable tourist image”. “They span several seasons and all users, tourists and residents have to endure inconveniences that project a negative image of our island, a world reference in tourism.” For this reason, he indicated that “there is room for improvement”, hoping that they will last as little as possible. However, he did not mention that a request has been made to AENA to speed up the work.
Imserso
At the same time, and although it is not the responsibility of Ibiza’s institutions, the entrepreneurs expressed their concern about the “unfeasibility” of the next Imserso campaign to the Consell. Marí recalled that, with 25 years of history, the program is getting smaller and smaller. “Prices make it unviable, even more so with the current increase in costs,” he lamented. According to him, it is essential that it continues because that will mean that part of the hotel facilities remains open in winter.
Therefore, he recalled that, taking advantage of the visit by the Minister of Tourism a few weeks ago to Ibiza, they moved this concern. And the fact is that “the hotels receive 23 euros per person in exchange for accommodation with full board, an insufficient amount,” added the president.
Yesterday’s meeting was the first “contact” to be followed by other meetings to address other problems.
A QR code to unify the services of the whole island
In the meeting held yesterday, the employers proposed to the administrations the creation of a QR code that unifies the information of service and tourist promotion of all the municipalities of the island in order to facilitate the information of interest to the visitors. A proposal that, both Consell and city councils looked upon favorably to be able to place these codes in different tourist establishments and thus facilitate the content to users. All assured that they will work on it to make it a reality as soon as possible.
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