Big companies of the world tourism Spanish They were complaining about major mistakes in distribution. european funds for a sector; After the total collapse caused by the pandemic, it has once again emerged as the engine of national economic growth. The criticism and accusations have come a long way since three years ago the Government approved the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) as a key tool to reactivate and reinvent an economy sunk by the ravages of covid, thanks to a massive injection of funds into Next Generation. It goes sideways.
Since then the sector has insisted on demanding a much larger injection of European funds than planned by the Administration (currently only 3 billion 400 million of the total 163 billion euros mobilized by the Plan by 2026, barely 2% after budget expansion). approval of the latest addendum). Tourism’s demands include electric vehicles, new renewable energy sources, microchips or having its own PERTE (strategic project for economic recovery and transformation), similar to those designed by the Executive for the aviation and maritime industries.
Complaints about the inadequacy of European funds and criticism of the Administration’s management have intensified in recent years just before and during the celebrations of the Madrid International Tourism Fair (Fitur). And this Fitur was no exception. “It’s such a shame[el Gobierno] “Don’t think about allocating some of the European funds to the tourism sector with one of these plans,” he said this week. Carmen RiuThe co-CEO of Riu Group, one of the country’s largest hotel companies, referred to the absence of tourist PERTE.
Criticisms have resumed these days from the lobby Exceltur, which brings together about thirty large groups in the sector (such as Meliá, Iberia, Globalia, NH Hotels, Riu or Amadeus), emphasizing that the tourism industry continues to miss a new development. PERTE focused on the sector and criticism of the projects to which existing funds were allocated increased further.
And major tourist groups are criticizing the formula chosen to distribute most of the European funds allocated to the sector, focusing on small projects. some companies are absorbing old Plan E of the government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and these were selected and designed by city councils without interference from private companies. Tourism companies would prefer to allocate funds to large transformative projects in main tourist destinations, rather than to small reforms and improvements in municipalities with little relevance to tourism.
Half of the industry does not know the funds
Exceltur conducts a quarterly survey among two thousand business units in the tourism sector to prepare its economic outlook reports, and the latest study includes specific questions regarding the allocation of European funds. The results are clearly negative; tourism entrepreneurs rate the impact they expect from NextGeneration funds on their activities at 3.6 out of 10; Less than half (48.9%) of respondents claim to know the distribution of funds, and almost 90% do not have access to tourism-oriented programs.
“The assessment of the impacts of inadequate initial allocation and 3,400 million (….) tourism investment from tourism entrepreneurs suggests a process of reflection on ways to redirect tourism investment, the largest tourism policy, and make better use of it. In its latest report, Exceltur points out “Spain’s recent history” and calls for “strategic rethinking and greater joint management to guarantee the greatest impact and transformative capacity within the three years of their implementation.”
A few years ago Exceltur came to draft a proposal for a sectoral plan to concentrate €17,500 million of European funds on tourism over ten years (€15,000 million in the first three years from PERTE and another €2,500 million from traditional European funds). exercises below) to modernize former Spanish ‘sun and beach’ tourist destinations. The association calculated that these more than 17,000 million public funds would also allow it to mobilize another 37,500 million in private investments.
The commitment now from major groups in the sector is to redirect existing budgets that have not yet been implemented towards projects in consolidated destinations with renovation needs and initiatives that will prevent overcrowding and saturation in some destinations to avoid social rejection of the sector. investment” public and private. Meliá and also Exceltur itself.
He defended the government plan
In recent years the Government has been defending the ambition and transformative capacity of its own plan for tourism, despite the sector being far less well-endowed than it was intended to be. Previous did this branch minister Reyes Maroto, and now the new one does it too Minister of Industry and Tourism Jordi Hereu.
Hereu stated that investments worth 3.4 billion euros demonstrate the Administration’s determination to strengthen policies aimed at the recovery of the sector and the renewal of destinations, increasing efficiency and intensifying the decentralization and deseasonalization of tourist experiences. The event he attended this week. “There are funds to be converted. There are funds that have never been seen before. “Whether its name is PERTE or not,” he said.
The government has argued that tourism does not have a PERTE, that these strategic projects are designed to promote industrial sectors and not services such as tourism that have economic drag capacity, and that these programs require 30% of all investments to be made by the state. He said that the private companies that implemented the projects and the tourism companies were not in a position to afford these investments due to the collapse of the sector during the pandemic period. Moreover, the Executive emphasizes that tourism has its own section in the Recovery Plan (a component mentioned in the PRTR), with planned investments of 3,940 million, of which 3,400 million correspond to NextGen funds.
Minister Hereu this week announced the Tourism Sector Modernization and Competitiveness Plan, which is expressed around these European funds and developed in three axes: Tourism sustainability plans in the destination, mobilizing 1,800 million for more than 500 projects to improve tourist destinations. throughout the country; Digitalization of the sector and destinations where more than 300 million investments have been made; and one third of competitiveness is the search for diversification, concentration and deseasonalization of the offer with better quality products.