Calvià will receive 16.8 million euros from the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS) corresponding to the 2026-2027 Annual Plan. Of this amount, 8.8 million will be allocated to seven municipal projects for urban renewal, renaturation, and heritage recovery, while almost 8 million will fund specific actions in Magaluf.

Two more euros in high season. This was the proposal that the Government put on the table in March 2025 to raise the eco-tax. A year and a half later, the Executive does not foresee this option, as stated this Monday by the Minister of Tourism, Jaume Bauzà, after the meeting of the Commission for the Promotion of Sustainable Tourism. "Our efforts are aimed at improving the management of the Sustainable Tourism Tax [ITS]. It is more necessary to manage it than to raise it," said Bauzà, in addition to remarking that the Government is focused on mobilizing and executing the resources generated by the tax.

One evening, while dining together in Madrid, we looked at each other with a certain perplexity. Celestí Alomar was Director General of Tourism and I was Vice-Rector of the University. I don't know if we said it exactly like that, but we both must have thought more or less the same thing: what are we doing here? We had met many years before, when we were two lads from the Pla de Mallorca, he from Llubí and I from Sant Joan. And another scene came to our minds, also distant: Franco's bust emerging from the balcony of the Rectorate of the University of Barcelona towards the street. We had gone from all that to Madrid, with ties, positions, and responsibilities. "Two suited up youngsters," he said.

The Palma City Council approved this Wednesday in a governing board meeting the ideas competition for the Palma Botanical Garden. The project, worth 15 million euros, is born with the will to grow by incorporating new natural spaces into the city. The first will be El Carnatge and, later on, gardens or estates from other administrations and even from private ownership can also be added through agreements.

Promoted by Celestí Alomar, Minister of Tourism of the first Pacte de Progrés (1999-2003), a tax on tourist stays, immediately known as the ‘ecotax’, was approved on April 10, 2001, twenty-five years ago. It levied, approximately one euro per night, the stay of tourists. With the revenue, some negative externalities of mass tourism in the Balearic Islands were to be corrected. It did not come into effect until May 2002 due to an appeal to the Constitutional Court, filed by the Aznar government. When the People's Party won the following elections in 2003, it repealed the tax, considering it a brake on tourist competitiveness. Those who defended the repeal of the tax said that it could not be classified as ecological or environmental, and that it was not even a tax, arguing: “It was nothing more than a symbol of a policy of negative messages towards what tourism represented”. And they related the application of the ecotax to the decrease in tourist arrivals and the problems the hotel sector had experienced. The Government of Jaume Matas wanted to replace it with so-called green cards or ‘sustainable’ foundations that only collected a pittance.

The Minister of Tourism, Jaume Bauzá, defended on Tuesday a "moderate" increase in the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS, known as the ecotax), similar to the one proposed by the Government last March: Raise it between 1.5 and 3 euros in high season and lower it in winterAt that time, he was unable to push the initiative through due to a lack of support from Vox, which opposes tax increases. "It wouldn't affect competitiveness at all," the regional minister insisted. Bauzá made these remarks in response to a question from Vox's deputy spokesperson, Sergio Rodríguez, about whether the regional government had studied the impact of this tax increase. Bauzá admitted that it hadn't, but insisted that "no extensive studies are needed" to know that this increase would be harmless. Rodríguez, for his part, responded that the government's sole objective with this proposal was to raise more revenue, not to discourage lower-income tourists, as Bauzá argued. In this regard, he urged the regional government to "stop bleeding" tourists and residents dry with taxes and instead focus on offerings that attract "higher-quality" tourists. For example, in his view: golf courses and beach clubs.

Cross-referencing data between the Government and the island councils has identified 1,475 establishments with tourist licenses that were not listed in the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS) registry, and to which requests have been sent, according to a statement from the Ministry of Economy.