Announced at the tourist trade fair, fitur, in madrid

Financial incentives to attract tourists during quieter months

Madrid. Joana Barcelo, Joan Flaquer and Jaume Matas

Activity holidays involving horseriding, hiking, golf, cycling and watersports are to be offered as alternatives to the traditional "sun and beach" breaks

C.M.W..Maó

During last week´s tourist trade fair in Madrid, FITUR, the Balearic President, Jaume Matas, announced "financial incentives" to attract out-of-season tourism to the Islands. This is one of ten strategies contained in a Diversification Plan aimed at increasing the 4 million tourists which come to the Balearics out of the summer months.

The Government is discussing economic benefits for companies which, by their actions, extend the tourist season and is also looking into the possibility of offering incentives when contracting employees in the sector.

Another measure contained in the proposal is the offer of multi-destinations so that tourists can visit more than one of the Balearic Islands. This would be achieved through agreements with the low-cost airlines and the setting of a single tariff of 27.5 euros on one-way flights between the islands.

Investigating the market, encouraging senior visitors, assessing public infrastructure, invigorating tourist resorts, training management and workers, introducing alternative holiday activities and providing resources are the remaining points in the Diversification Plan which was the Balearic Government´s central theme at FITUR.

Jaume Matas explained that the plan was based on three essential ideas: the improvement of the product, the surroundings and promotion by exploiting other forms of holidays as alternatives to the "sun and beach", such as holidays based on equestrianism, gastronomy, marine activities, health, congresses and events, incentives, meetings, golf, cyclotourism, or hiking, amongst other options.

The Councillor for Tourism, Joan Flaquer, said that the plan contained a lot of ideas which were already in practise and others that had been planned for the future, such as the construction of a convention centre and the Ciutadella Planetarium. The Government will also be launching the first "audioguide" using an MP3 system, for commentaries on routes around Ciutadella and Maó and Menorcan archaeology.

Jaume Matas pointed out this was not the first time that the island had tried to offer more variety to tourists and, as a result, the Balearics have 180 active tourist companies, 20,000 moorings in marinas, 20 hotels specialising in hiking holidays, 30 in cycling, 41 in golf, 25 in "spa" and "wellness" and 58 with convention facilities, as well as 75 restaurants which have the highest certificate of quality.

The Balearic President emphasised the good performance of the tourist industry in the last year and considered that this was "a good time to undertake structural reforms" in the sector. Matas advocates increasing the prices of tourist services to increase the industry´s profitability as "otherwise it will be very difficult for the sector to reinvest in improvements".