<![CDATA[Ara Balears in English - Economy]]> 10 <![CDATA[What Palma do we want?]]> Even though the calendar insists that the year begins in January, we all know that the true blank page has opened in September, with the start of the school year. Nerves, excitement, and the desire to do many things.

]]> <![CDATA[Popular Party: saturation manual]]> In a country and a territory like ours, pushed economically by the tourist machinery of the Mediterranean summer, the Human Pressure Indicator is ideal for calibrating the saturation levels of what we call, in a broad sense, infrastructures and facilities: airports, roads, parking lots, buses, trains, hospitals, beaches, squares, streets. Last May in Mallorca, a new record for human pressure was registered, with almost 1.4 million people in a single day. By August, this figure will have been far exceeded, on an island where the resident population is about 971,000 inhabitants. The reader will perfectly understand that this enormous demographic pressure implies an accumulated sum of demands for the consumption of goods and services: more water that we do not have, more cars that we do not want, more electricity that we will need, more waste that we will produce, and ultimately more of everything and bad. This is a totally unsustainable burden for an island that is overcrowded to the maximum.

]]> <![CDATA[Unemployment rises 1.9% year-on-year in September in the Balearic Islands and affiliation, 4.5%]]>

The State Public Employment Service (SEPE) has recorded 26,547 unemployed in September in the Balearic Islands, 493 more than the same month of the previous year, which represents a rise of 1.9%, while affiliation to Social Security has increased by 4.5% year-on-year, with 29,079 more, reaching 684,079.

]]> <![CDATA[Where do the richest of the Balearic Islands live?]]>

Esporles is the municipality in the Balearic Islands with the highest average declared gross income. Taxpayers in this municipality declared an average of 56,468 euros in 2024, according to data from the Tax Agency. It is followed by two other municipalities in the Serra de Tramuntana, Valldemossa, with 49,102 euros, and Puigpunyent, with 45,445 euros.

]]> <![CDATA[United Airlines will fly every day between Palma and New York]]>

United Airlines will strengthen the direct connection between Palma and New York in the summer of 2027 with a daily flight between Newark airport and Son Sant Joan. The company plans to operate three weekly frequencies starting in March and increase them to seven from May 26 until October. The route, launched in 2022, is currently the only non-stop connection between Mallorca and the United States.

]]> <![CDATA[The invoice]]> Some politicians say that the Sustainable Tourism Tax should go up by two euros. Others want four. Tomorrow someone will propose six. Meanwhile, hoteliers look at it sideways, lest this auction end up going too high. On the other hand, there is a Government that tries not to get too involved, lest someone send them the bill in the next elections. I listen to both sides with a certain fascination, because I am always left with the same question: two or four, based on what? Why four and not three? Why two and not seven? What calculation has exactly led us to that figure?As far as I know, none. It is a very curious way of doing math: first we decide how much we want to charge and then we will look at how much it costs. If we go out to dinner and when we ask for the bill the waiter asks us if we prefer to pay two, four, or six, we will surely ask him for something more elemental: the invoice.Well, that is exactly what we are missing.When a tourist leaves the Islands, they have paid for the hotel, the restaurant, the plane, the rental car, and everything we have wanted to charge them for. But there is another bill that we do not know if they have paid in full: that of the effects their stay leaves on others. There are, therefore, many unpaid accounts. But they are not quite the tourist's fault. They pay what we ask of them. It is we who have not presented them with the full bill.Economists call them externalities: effects of an activity on third parties that are not reflected in the price. The bill we are looking for is the cost that these effects have on the well-being of those of us who live here. And it is not enough to simply add up the expenses of the administrations. Part of the cost appears in public budgets; another part we suffer in the form of congestion, pressure on housing, water scarcity, saturation of spaces or, simply, loss of time and quality of life.Not everything will be easy to convert into euros. What is an hour lost in a traffic jam worth? What is the cost of the fact that finding housing is becoming increasingly difficult? Not knowing how to put a price on something is very different from thinking that it costs nothing.There is another issue that is important to me. When I talk about tourism, I am not just thinking about those who sleep in a hotel or a vacation rental. I am also thinking about those who have a house in the Islands and come here to spend their holidays. The fact that they sleep in their own home does not make the effects of their presence disappear. That house is part of the residential stock, even if it is used only part of the year; and when it is occupied, it consumes water, uses roads, infrastructure, and services.The bill, therefore, should be quite indifferent to where we sleep. A hotel, a rented dwelling, or a second home may generate different costs, but they all must enter the account. If we only look at regulated tourist spots, we leave a part of the activity out of the picture.And counting heads is not enough either. It is not the same to come for three days as it is to spend three months there. It matters how many people come, but also how much time they are there, when they come, where they concentrate, and what pressure they exert on resources that are not infinite. Therefore, rather than the number of tourists, I prefer to speak about the level of tourist activity.Furthermore, the bill does not necessarily have to grow at the same rate as the activity. One more car on an empty road is barely noticeable; on a congested road, it is another story. With water, housing, services, and certain spaces, something similar can happen. When we approach the limits, adding more activity can become increasingly expensive for us.This is what we should know. I am not looking for a big figure that says “tourism costs this much”. I am interested in knowing what bill we have with different levels of activity and how it changes when it increases or decreases. Perhaps some costs grow little and others, a lot. We do not know. And this ‘we do not know’ seems to me quite a bit more rigorous than some figures that circulate with admirable certainty.And so we return to the two euros and the four. At times, the debate over the Sustainable Tourism Tax feels like an auction in reverse. I would start with something quite a bit less exciting: I would make the bill.I would do it, mind you, without deciding beforehand what result we would like to obtain. If there are positive effects that are not already included in the economic activity, they must also be taken into account. If there are things that we cannot estimate with sufficient rigor, it must be stated. We are not looking for the bill to come out big or small. We are looking for it to be credible.Then there are the hoteliers. The employers' associations represent their members and it is perfectly legitimate for them to be concerned about the margins, costs, and competitiveness of their companies. What would be more surprising is if they were concerned first about our profit and loss account. We must listen to them, naturally. They know the business and have information that we need. But it is one thing to listen to them and another, to hand them the calculator.When an employers' association says that four euros can harm competitiveness, it may be right. It could also turn out that four euros were too little. Without knowing the bill, we do not know one thing or the other. The bill for the Islands cannot be calculated by someone who has an interest in it coming out cheap. And it would not reassure me much either if it were calculated by someone who has an interest in it coming out expensive.I would entrust the work to a group of experts of recognized prestige, independent both of the affected sectors and of the Government. Economists and specialists in housing, water, mobility, territory, public services, and the environment. With the data, the methodology, and the possible conflicts of interest on the table. Let them calculate what can be calculated, estimate with rigor what must be estimated, and also state what we cannot know.Then we would indeed have an interesting political debate. What part of the external costs is already covered? Which part remains unpaid? Who should assume it? Does it make sense to charge the same for forms of activity that can generate different costs?Then we can discuss how we should charge for it.Until then we can continue with the two euros, the four, or the figure that brings the most luck that week. But let's not confuse a political position with an economic calculation.Two, four or forty?I don't know.And I am surprised that there are so many people who do.We will only know if there are two, four or forty when we have the invoice.It is time to do it. And only then will we know how much the unpaid bill that tourism leaves us each season really is.

]]> <![CDATA[The revolution of free things]]> What would happen if most people used their leisure time for free things, to let their money rest? Wouldn't that be a revolutionary act? How would our friend capitalism react?

]]> <![CDATA[In Menorca one can no longer live]]>

Menorca is on track to break the record for visitor arrivals this year. The latest data from Aena counts more than 3.1 million passengers at the airport through August, 2.5% more than last year, when historic figures were reached. Meanwhile, the island's inhabitants are suffering from the housing emergency and have had to change their consumption habits. Because in Menorca, one can no longer live, by any means, like before.

]]> <![CDATA[A controversial diagnosis]]> The comparison between the Basque Country and Catalonia is a reference that Miquel Puig uses to justify that Catalonia is performing worse due to its greater tourism specialization compared to the Basque Country. (La Vanguardia, 8-29-2026). Other economists who join Puig in this reflection also refer to the fact that the Balearic Islands are also performing worse due to their excessive tourism specialization compared to the rest of the Autonomous Communities, a fact that causes a relative loss of per capita income motivated by the low productivity that these service activities generate compared to industry. As we argue below, we do not believe that the analysis Puig makes for Catalonia can be transferred to the Balearic Islands, among other things because the Balearic Islands rather act as a counterexample to what they defend for Catalonia.

]]> <![CDATA[Fuels shoot inflation in the Balearic Islands up to 4.4%]]>

Refilling the tank is once again pushing up the cost of living. The rise in fuel prices has pushed inflation in the Balearic Islands to 4.4% in August, five tenths of a percentage point higher than in July and the highest rate since April 2023. The Islands are thus slightly above the national average, which stands at 4.3%, according to data published this Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

]]> <![CDATA[The Mallorcan technology company Robot closes the sale to the Swedish group HMS for 21 million]]>

The Majorcan technology company Robot, one of the most consolidated technology-based industrial firms in the Balearic Islands, is about to pass into Swedish hands. The multinational HMS Networks has launched an offer to acquire 100% of the shares of the company founded in Mallorca and specialized in building automation systems, especially for hotels. The operation values Robot at 21 million euros and, if completed, will also lead to its exclusion from BME Growth.

]]> <![CDATA[The perfect storm over the Balearic Islands: The double plunder that leads us to self-hatred]]> Living in the Balearic Islands has become, for the majority of their historical citizens, an almost impossible exercise in resistance. Beneath a layer of blue sky and idyllic postcards for tourists, a dramatic reality beats: the Archipelago suffers from an economic and social pincer designed from the outside that hollows us out from within. On one hand, a Spanish state that keeps our hands and feet tied (with the ‘you more than me’ of generalized corruption); on the other, a European Union that uses us as the playground and luxury residence of its elites (in exchange for European funds directed at national and European strategic points).The result of this formula is the systematic impoverishment of the local population. The double trap: wages from emptied Spain, prices from wealthy Europe.The Balearic plunder cannot be explained without understanding a bloody paradox. The Spanish state maintains a salary structure in the Islands that does not differ from that of the so-called ‘emptied Spain’. It is expected that a teacher, a police officer, or an administrative worker lives in Palma and Ibiza with the same salary they would have in Teruel or Zamora.This lack of real compensation for insularity has caused an administrative and social collapse: State civil servants no longer want to come to the Balearic Islands, because coming means, directly, losing purchasing power and brushing against the threshold of precariousness.While Madrid keeps us tied to wage poverty, Europe presses the accelerator on the cost of living. The legal avalanche of new wealthy residents—coming from northern Europe and half the world—has sent housing and basic service prices soaring to prohibitive levels. We find ourselves trapped in an invisible mousetrap: we earn like in inland Spain, but we pay like in the most opulent Bavaria.Faced with this scenario of asphyxiation, many Balearic families have been forced into a sad reality to survive and emigrate again, or to maintain a minimum standard of living: parting with the family heritage. Selling the grandparents' house, the lifelong land, and the small local business have gone from being an option to being a matter of strict necessity.It is here that the most perverse mechanism of the colonizing machinery is activated. Instead of pointing out the structural causes, the official narrative points to us."You are Phoenicians who would sell your own mother", they throw at us with the condescension of the unintegrated outsider.It is one of the oldest psychological manipulation maneuvers in history: blaming the victim for their own exploitation. The miracle of installing self-hatred in the hearts of the Balearic people has been achieved, making us believe that we are the only ones responsible for this consented plunder.But if there is one element that borders on collective masochism, it is the political behavior in the Islands. As a society, we have not only bought into the narrative of guilt, but we continue to reward at the polls the parties that perpetuate this situation.Political forces of state obedience —especially fueled by the vote of newcomers from the peninsula who often look at the local identity with suspicion— continue to monopolize power. The PP, Vox, the PSIB-PSOE, and Podemos systematically act as branches of Madrid.Even those who presented themselves as the "saviors of the people", like Podemos, have ended up turning their backs on the Balearic people. The latest sign of this betrayal has been the party's rejection (joining other right-wing state blocs) of the bill proposed by MÉS to establish a specific interprofessional minimum wage for the Balearic Islands that is adapted to the actual cost of living here.While the Balearic social fabric is unraveling, the Parliament of the Islands prefers to look the other way and obey the dictates of the offices in Madrid. How long will we apologize for having to sell to survive? How long will we feed with our votes the same parties that condemn us to be second-class citizens in our own land?The first step to stop the looting is, without a doubt, to banish self-hatred and begin to point out, once and for all, the true culprits.

]]> <![CDATA["We are becoming Venetianized, we are being expelled from the place where we produce because we cannot live there"]]>

Ferran Portella is a tenured professor of Economics at the UIB, and he analyzes for ARA Balears the existing dysfunction between the price per square meter and the salaries of the islanders. He explains how the housing crisis has changed citizens' perception and tolerance towards tourism excesses.

]]> <![CDATA[The invisible cost of tourists]]>

It is not an easy debate. Talking about the cost of healthcare for tourists forces us to walk a fine and delicate border line. On the one hand, the principle of universality of healthcare, which guarantees that anyone who needs it must be treated; on the other hand, the obligation of whoever has to assume the cost of that care.

]]> <![CDATA["We cannot be subjected to the dictatorship of tourism"]]>

Celestí Alomar (Llubí, 1949) ponders the future of tourism from the Majorcan Col·lectiu Alternatives, previously he did so from the Administration. He looks at it from the Islands, which historically anticipate what will happen to the Spanish sector as a whole, and with the experience of having been Director General of Tourism Strategy for Felipe González and of having had a portfolio in the Pacte de Progrés that created the pioneering ecotax.

]]> <![CDATA[Menorca's silent growth: recovers more than 800 tourist places]]>

The moratorium that has been in effect since 2022 has resulted in the loss of over 2,800 tourist places in Menorca in the last four years, which this season offers 81,261 beds to visitors, below the 84,000 mark that had been surpassed just after the pandemic.

]]> <![CDATA[Decrease in tourism to grow better]]> On Sunday, July 26, a historic demonstration took place again in Palma, with 50,000 people, which is as if 500,000 had demonstrated in Barcelona. The unanimous shouts of ‘Enough is enough’ and ‘These have done nothing and will do nothing’ were led by a crowd of Majorcans from Palma and its towns in a demonstration of civility and pacifism that in no way deserved the final police charges provoked by the police themselves. That said, we want to focus on the political importance of the demonstration, which is a clear denunciation of the inaction of the PP Government with Vox, even though they say “that they do not feel implicated” after practically reaching the end of their term without having done anything, or worse, approving laws that indicate that they do defend the interests of those who “want more”!First point: the elephant in the room, "tourist degrowth"

Our economic architecture, as everyone knows, has a main beam: tourism. It's as if we said that the size of this main beam determines the total size of the building. And, in a capitalist economy, what determines the total size of the building is the investment in search of the profits generated by that investment. Everyone also knows that, as long as tourism generates profits —and it generates many profits— any expansion of the main beam will end with a bigger building. This is how it is, and it will always be this way as long as the governments in power are dedicated to not stopping this dynamic, because employers are fine with it, and as long as citizens swallow the idea that thanks to tourism we live better and better. Economists have known for a long time, and have denounced it, that since 1985 this is no longer the case: since that year our per capita income compared to the Spanish average has fallen by more than 50 percentage points. What is new, now, is that a sufficiently important social majority, which will continue to grow, has said "Enough is enough".Second point: if they have done nothing and will do nothing, then the question is what do we have to do to be able to grow better

First of all, to know who we can trust and who we cannot. As Fuentes Quintana said, “first you need a good diagnosis to be able to act”. In other words, first consult where excellent scientific, technical and holistic thinking is concentrated, and then agree on these proposals with the citizens; once a “roadmap” has been agreed upon, we must have the political courage to move forward with a strategic plan that allows us to “decrease tourism in order to grow better”.Where do we have in the Balearic Islands the best scientific, technical, and holistic thinking to make the best diagnosis? Undoubtedly at the UIB, at CSIC-UIB centers such as Imedea, IEO, and at technological infrastructures like SOCIB; in the case of Menorca, at OBSAM. Nowhere else. This exercise has already been done and specified over three years in Opinion 5/2020 of the CES on the economic, social, and environmental foresight of the societies of the Balearic Islands by the horizon 2030 (H2030), an exercise in political governance praised by the European Economic and Social Council. The key question is, therefore, why have politicians not heeded the most possible quality and independent diagnosis they had available, in which more than 40 UIB professors from more than ten areas of knowledge have intervened, and there has been a desire to tangle things up and a new diagnosis has been requested again from a foundation partly dominated by the employers' association to miserably waste time for six years.In view of this lack of political will, there has been a reaction from civil society with the creation of the Forum of Civil Society, which has gathered the contributions of the CES opinion and has focused its efforts on two crucial issues that have been worked on in two very important congresses. The first, focused on tourism and how tourism can decrease, obviously without forgetting that for many years it will continue to be our main beam, but smaller. The second, focused on the housing problem. The third is now being prepared on how to grow better and that it cannot grow without the democratic participation of civil society in the Balearic Islands. It is scheduled for early December and is open to everyone's participation, with the intention of agreeing on a roadmap that will oblige political parties to commit and not neglect the citizens of the Balearic Islands once again. Enough is enough of being fooled!  

]]> <![CDATA[Disproportions]]> This is a summer of disproportion, and it is so not only because of an eclipse that, at the rate we are going, we will have to watch from our home TV, because only those who have paid to come to Mallorca will have the right to contemplate it... The unbearable heat is also disproportionate, the highest since records began in 1961, with a persistence that highlights one of our main vulnerabilities: no matter how much the tourism industry and Aena pretend that records of tourists and flights can be beaten year after year, natural resources, but also the system and infrastructures, have limits, even if no politician dares to define them clearly.

]]> <![CDATA[To prosper is more than to grow]]> For decades, we have identified economic growth with prosperity. If an economy produces more, creates jobs, and generates more income, we tend to think that society is living better. In general, this is the case. Without wealth creation, there can be no well-being.

]]> <![CDATA["A much stronger economic crisis than that of 2008 is coming"]]>

For years, Antonio Turiel (León, 1970), a physicist, mathematician, and CSIC researcher, has been warning that the global economic model is approaching the planet's energy limits. The war between Israel and Iran and the tension in the Strait of Hormuz, he assures, have only accelerated a crisis he considers inevitable. Invited to Mallorca by the No Normal movement, he argues that the Balearic Islands must prepare for a future with less oil, less tourism, and greater social vulnerability. "The worst thing would be to continue thinking that everything will go back to how it was," he warns.

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