The government delegate holds a first meeting with the Secretary of State for Tourism

The government delegate holds a first meeting with the Secretary of State for Tourism

The government delegate to the Balearic Islands, Alfonso Rodríguez Badal, held an initial official meeting with the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosana Morillo, on Monday to address various issues of interest to the Balearic Islands related to this department. The meeting noted the full recovery of tourist activity that the islands have recorded during 2023, with an increase in the number of visitors around 9% compared to 2022 and more than 5% compared to the figures of the year before the pandemic, and 16% more tourist expenditure in the last year. Likewise, the occupation in the sector has grown in the same period by almost 17%, according to the latest Active Population Survey (EPA).

The official data at the end of 2023, as well as the forecast figures for the first quarter in the whole of Spain, anticipate that this record trend will continue; Turespaña expects 10.8% more international visitors to our country and spending will increase by 18.5%. The Government Delegation in the Balearic Islands and the Secretary of State have shown their satisfaction to corroborate that the policies of the Government of Spain to extend the tourist season are working.

Extension of execution deadlines and justification

On the other hand, Rodríguez Badal has been interested in the situation of the resources allocated in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) to the modernization and competitiveness of tourism in the archipelago.

In particular, the delegate referred particularly to the execution of the 100 M€ planned for Balears within line 3 of Component 14 of the PRTR, which refers to the “Tourism Resilience Strategies for Extra-Island Territories”.

In this regard, the Secretary of State informed the Government delegate of the work of the central executive to extend the deadlines for the execution and justification of the projects, which are currently ending in December 2024.

The autonomous communities and autonomous cities affected are the ones that must now formally and arguably request the need for these execution and justification deadlines to be extended. “We are at the full disposal of the autonomous communities that require the support of the Government of Spain to get these funds materialized in projects that transform our society, and we hope that they will send us their requests,” said Morillo.

The extension of the execution deadlines of these projects requires the modification of the royal decrees affected, as well as the agreements signed between the Secretary of State for Tourism and the autonomous communities that deploy them.