Soltour, Nautalia and Mundiplan have appealed the award of the Imserso program to the Central Administrative Court of Contractual Resources, a move that could delay the start of trips for the elderly between two weeks and three months, depending on how it evolves the processing of allegations.
Tour operator Soltour, from the Piñero tourist group, was the last to confirm the appeal, just yesterday. In the appeal, the exclusive awarding of the three lots of the program to Ávoris, a division of the Barceló group in association with Halcón Viajes, is described as “unfair”. It is the first time that a single company has won the entire contract, which this season has 886,269 places divided into three lots – peninsular, with half of the trips, island coast and getaway tourism and of European origin. Ávoris scored the highest in all three batches.
From Soltour they insist that the award has not been made in accordance with the bases of the contract. He had previously submitted allegations to the Imserso Contracting Board, but they were rejected. The appeal presented is mainly focused on contesting what they consider “the unfair elimination of his candidacy, which was communicated to him on the same day that the program was awarded”. In this way, they are trying to get Imserso to re-evaluate their proposal submitted for lot 1, “which must be a winner if the quality criteria of the competition are taken into account”, they insist. In this batch, the two award criteria that weighed the most are the hotel offer, with 39%, and the price offered, with 38%. Soltour claims that its offer is cheaper than the winning one.
Soltour’s claim is added to those made by the UTE formed by Seniorplan, Autocars Vera and Nautalia, and by Mundiplan (Iberia, IAG7 and Alsa). These resources could delay the start of the program, which traditionally begins between mid-September and early October with the marketing of the trips. The Court now has between 10 and 15 days to decide whether to admit the appeals. If that were the case and taking into account the resources, all the proposals would have to be re-evaluated and in this situation the program could suffer a considerable delay. If he rejects them, the schedule would barely change. However, the Ministry of Social Rights clarifies that they do not expect a delay in the start of travel for this season. Even if it were admitted to the procedure, they continue, “there would not necessarily be a significant delay compared to the beginning of other years”.
Sources close to Ávoris emphasize that the award “was fair”, and they trust that once the allegations are reviewed, their offer will continue to be considered the most appropriate.
The Imserso program is crucial for the tourism industry, as it allows a large part of the activity to be maintained in the low season. This season includes a 7.5% increase in prices per seat after years of industry complaints, plus more than 70,000 more trips. The program for the 2023-2024 season is valued at more than 300 million euros; Imserso contributes 22.5% and users 77.5%.
