An education in tourism for Pollensa’s mayor
Pollensa is a curious tourism municipality in that there are more registered holiday rental places than there are hotel places.
Martí March has been mayor of Pollensa since June last year. Prior to the municipal election, he spent eight years as the Balearic education minister. His background is firmly in education, having at one time climbed to the rank of university professor of the sociology of education. On Monday, he acquired a further task. He was elected the vice-president of Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces’ tourism commission.
Education, tourism, where’s the overlap? Hard to say, but his party - PSOE - issued a statement which explained that the vice-presidency was once more a recognition of the experience and leadership that the Balearics have in “a key economic sector” and of the commitment to “quality tourism”.
It might seem a little odd that a mayor whose own experience of being a mayor is no greater than nine months and whose greatest experience is that of education makes it to a national tourism commission. One might also add that, while Pollensa is a tourism municipality, it is small by comparison with others in Mallorca - Calvia, Palma, neighbouring Alcudia, for instance. Indeed, but then these are all municipalities with a Partido
Popular
mayor. Do the politics determine a position? Maybe, but then the president of the newly constituted commission is José Manuel
Bermúdez, who is mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on behalf of the Coalición Canaria, the nationalist party in the Canaries which usually gives its support to Prime Minister Sánchez but has been known not to.
Be the politics as they may, the programme for the commission may point to one particularly important reason why March has been chosen as vice-president. And that is holiday rentals. Pollensa is a curious tourism municipality in that there are more registered holiday rental places than there are hotel places. And Pollensa, as we all know, has long built its tourism economy on holiday rentals.
Having been elected, March outlined one of the commission’s objectives: “To make possible a sustainable, diversified, regenerative tourism in all aspects, a tourism that addresses the issues of training and quality of work and, in short, an agreement with the residents of the different tourist municipalities.”
Ah yes, the residents, as they are (or should be) at the heart
of all discussions about tourism because of the need for coexistence, something that holiday rentals most certainly threaten. There again, while Pollensa has its illegal lets like everywhere else, the legal rental business has existed for years and predominantly remains the preserve of villas that were always intended for the holiday trade.
It has its objectives, but what does this commission actually do? In line with the mission for the federation, it represents the interests of local governments; island and provincial councils are members as well as town halls. It liaises with the Spanish government and lobbies the government. So it is more than just a talking-shop.
While the whole issue of holiday lets (legal and illegal) is of enormous importance because of housing implications, Pollensa’s mayor has certain other pressing concerns of a tourism nature, one being planning permissions. This has been highlighted by the case of the Galeón Aparthotel in Puerto Pollensa, which was bought by Toni Nadal, the uncle of Rafa, in December 2022. He is among many who is waiting for a licence for transforming the Galeón into “an emblematic establishment”, as was stated at the time of the purchase.
It has seemingly taken publicity given to the delay that Nadal is experiencing to highlight the logjam with planning permissions at Pollensa town hall. But this was something that Martí March himself highlighted several months ago. The town hall has made provision for the recruitment of three more architects to help cut a backlog that has just lengthened over the years. There is political blame for the situation as now is, but the fact is that is an historical problem regardless of which parties have been in power.
Where Toni Nadal is concerned, he will just have to wait his turn like everyone else, with the urban planning department said to be receiving some 1,500 applications of different sorts per year. An unsatisfactory state of affairs, it has been pointed out that the town hall has nevertheless appeared to be able to sort out permissions for the Hotel Formentor.