The business dispute over Imserso trips that had put the start of the program on hold has been resolved in favor of the initial winner, Ávoris, a division of the Barceló group in association with Halcón Viajes. The Central Administrative Court of Contractual Resources (TACRC), dependent on the Ministry of Finance, has rejected the appeals to the tender presented by Soltour, Mundiplan and Nautalia, so that the tourism program for seniors will resume immediately.
Imserso is confident that the season will start on the usual dates, during the second half of October, thus giving a break to both the hotels and the travel agencies that participate in it. The tourism sector depends largely on this program to maintain activity in the low season, and the possible delay in travel had caused great concern that is now dissipated.
Now, the next steps to be taken by the agency dependent on the Ministry of Social Rights will be, on the one hand, the signing of the contract with the UTE awarded the different lots, Ávoris, and then, the sending of the accreditation letters to the travel users. These letters contain the information that pensioners need to later book their trip. After these steps, marketing will begin by authorized agencies to begin the travel season.
The 2023-2024 season program has almost 900,000 seats (886,269, 70,000 more than the previous season), which are divided into three lots: 443,887 seats for peninsular coast trips; 30,039 places on the island coast and 212,343 places for getaway tourism (with cultural circuits, nature circuits or visits to provincial capitals). Last March, Imserso announced a new tender offer for Social Tourism trips.
The award criteria have been modified on this occasion. The entity has prioritized the quality of the offer and the places have been increased, including individual places, in addition to incorporating new cultural and nature routes. In the same way and, for the first time, the interior circuits have been extended to all the provincial capitals of the country.
This season includes a 7.5% price increase per seat after years of complaints from the sector, in addition to 70,000 more seats. The 2023-2024 program is valued at more than 300 million euros, of which Imserso contributes 22.5% and users 77.5%.
