Few decrees of the Generalitat have been applauded both in the local politics of the Pyrenees and the new regulation implemented by decree by the Ministry of Territory to reduce tourist flats. Mayors of the main regional capitals of those mountains consider that the rule – which establishes the elimination in five years of 28,000 homes of this type in the 47 municipalities of Catalonia that exceed ten tourist use flats per 100 inhabitants – will alleviate the serious housing problem in the Pyrenees. This territory, these councilors assure in a manifesto in the process of being drawn up, has paid an expensive bill for the 2015 law, now modified, which they blame for the proliferation of tourist flats with little control to unsustainable figures.
The position of these mayors is completely contrary to that expressed in recent days by the tourist housing sector in the coastal areas, who predict the loss of thousands of tourists with this regulation pending ratification by Parliament.
Juan Antonio Serrano, mayor of Vielha and vice-president of the Provincial Council of Lleida, maintains that the bill collected on the beach and mountains for this tourist model “cannot be compared”. Serrano, who has been leading the fight against that 2015 law for years, values ??the “courage” of the Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, “for giving such an important push in the regulation of these homes”.
The number of tourist apartments in the High Pyrenees and Aran has multiplied by four during the last eight years. From the 1,298 that were there in 2015, it has gone to 4,719 registered in the middle of this year. The imbalance between the various types of housing and tourist accommodation is reflected with a figure referring to the Val d’Aran. 80% of the population with fixed residence in this county could live in the tourist flats currently offered on the market.
This 37% increase in tourist flats in such a short space of time “has had negative effects, such as tourist concentration in periods of greatest influx”, says the manifesto. Campsites and hotels (with an offer of 32% and 25% of the total number of places) are already below the figure in the offer of these homes. Another bill paid by the inhabitants of the Pirineufa refers to rental prices, “which are already exceeding historical limits”. And all this, the same document states, “makes access to housing difficult for the local population or the search for accommodation for workers in the tourism sector itself”. In areas with high tourist seasonality, “some entrepreneurs in the sector have had to purchase hotels or rent entire hotels to accommodate their workers, which implies the closure of regulated places and businesses in operation to give them another use”, says the manifesto.
In this comparison between beach and mountain when assessing the consequences of the decree in the two tourist destinations, the mayors stress that “the problem of housing in the High Pyrenees and Aran is more serious than in other tourist destinations, with very nearby less tense areas (which can accommodate tourists who would not fit in areas with more demand) or in territories where mobility is easier, which, for example, allows workers to live several kilometers from the business where they have work places”.
The mayors of the Pyrenees also agree to emphasize that the economic impact of tourist flats in this fragile territory “is very moderate”. In addition to causing massive influxes of visitors on specific dates, which collapse the companies that offer activities and services, unable to cover the excessive demand of customers due to the oversized offer of places in the tourist apartments. And it is impossible, with this model that is saturating the territory with tourists on specified dates (with the bad image this generates) “to know the real impact of these visitors, due to the lack of information on the number of overnight stays or on the average period of stay”. Qualitatively, this model also does not provide data on “interests or motivations of tourists, since the owner of the tourist apartment barely has contact with them”.
Serrano trusts that the rule will be complied with when Parliament regulates the decree. And he predicts that this regulation “will make things much easier for the Town Councils that we have already tried to put a limit on this tourist offer in recent years”. For the mayor of Vielha and the other councilors of the mountain counties who bless the new rule, the error with the 2015 regulation is that the law “did not calculate the impact that the tourist apartment model would have on the rest of the accommodations are regulated and undergo many more checks”. They criticize that the regulations with those homes have been much less restrictive than with the rest of hotel or camping businesses.
