The achievements of Celestí Alomar

PalmaCelestí Alomar left us prematurely this week. Taking stock of his time heading the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of the Balearic Islands (1999-2003), I find that no predecessor or successor has achieved successes comparable to his.

The term of the Pact of Progress culminated in great milestones in defense of the territory: the protection of natural spaces, regulation to limit the increase in tourist beds, new urbanizations (the so-called 'moratoriums'), new urban centers, marinas and golf courses and, finally, the ecotax that Celestí imposed on tourist overnight stays (2001-2003). The collection of that tax was established to be earmarked, aimed at remedying the impacts of tourism. The boldness of these advances can be measured by the asphalt and cement revenge of the subsequent government, presided over by Jaume Matas (2003-2007), which eliminated the ecotax.

Celestí's academic training in Geography, I think, also contributed to the successes of his term. Geography provides a vision that relativizes the weight of tourism within the set of social and ecological relationships. From Geography, we understand tourism as one more form of social production of space. The creation of supply makes a place become a tourist destination, as a result of political decisions and capital investment. It is not about any territorial vocation that blesses us hand in hand with 'wealth-creating' benefactors. What for many is so obvious, at the end of the 20th century was a taboo subject. However, Celestí was quite clear about it.

When Celestí assumed the position of Minister of Tourism, the public debate already incorporated this analysis with rigor thanks to the campaigns of the GOB that quantified the ‘alarm signals’ of the unsustainability of the Balearic economy. Toni Tarabini was then directing the Research Center of the Ministry of Tourism (CITTIB, today AETIB). They contacted me to develop Tourism Sustainability Indicators, making an agreement with the UIB. Ivan Murray took on the commission after having defended his dissertation with the calculation of the ecological footprint of the economy of the Balearic Islands. Alfonso Meaurio, who replaced Antoni Tarabini, maintained support for our research project. Joana Maria Garau completed the tandem at first, but later we were able to add more members: Jaume Mateu, Neus Andreu, Felip Morell, Llorenç Mas, Gloria Truyols, Sofía López, Alícia Bauzà, Catina March, Fander Falconí... (there would end up being many of us!). The last publication of the Indicators was suppressed by the Matas government. Now it has to be Terraferida that calculates the construction of swimming pools and the supply of tourist housing rentals. Our priority was to enrich the public debate through forums with the entire spectrum of social agents in accordance with indicators that evaluated the unsustainability of the island economy and that sought to find measures to transition towards fairer and more sustainable islands.

Celestí Alomar also made me a member of an Advisory Committee that debated all the projects that requested funding from the eco-tax. The dialogue that made Celestí’s eyes sparkle the most was the assertive one. I argued as well as I could my dissent in the Committee, when it was the case. This was the case, for example, for the funding of new urban water supply infrastructure from the wells of the Marineta de Petra to the Bay of Palma; which also earned me a discussion with Antoni Rodríguez, a department colleague, then Director General of Water Resources.

Discussing with Celestí helped ideas mature because he was vehement but not categorical. Unlike most of the ruling class, Celestí was not servile to the priorities of big tourism capital, which are none other, by the very nature of capitalism, than competing to maximize profit extraction, masking its labor, ecological, and community rights abuses. Celestí pointed at King Tourism to show that, in reality, he wears his shame in the open and we must not be fooled by the embellishments of marketing.

Those of us who worked for Celestí during those very tense years know how temperamental he was, capable of standing up to the bosses Escarrer, Fluxà, Middelmann, Piñero, etc. Celestí believed in the need to steer the market through public policies of tourism degrowth in favor of social and environmental justice. This was the spirit of the 2001 ecotax. With the investment of its proceeds, natural spaces were purchased (such as Son Real), mature tourist areas were opened up (for example, with the demolition of the Ditos hotel in Cala Major to provide public access to the beach), and the seashore was renaturalized (removing, for example, a dilapidated apartment block on the seafront in Son Serra de Marina).

The recovery in 2016 of the tourist tax with earmarked funds to alleviate the ills of this hegemonic industry demonstrates Celestí's foresight. But for the last 10 years, the proceeds from the tourist tax have not been dedicated to degrowth, but to increasing the capacity of infrastructure to grow in water consumption, land and air transport, further favoring a 'good business environment,' and conducting advertising campaigns.

In recent years we reconnected with an activist Celestí, we shared spaces again and engaged in dialogue with a person increasingly radical in the sense that he went to the root of problems; with the intelligence of someone who knows that success is never ceasing to evolve.