Today tourism councillor Alejandra Ferrer gave an appraisal of the Formentera Council's inspection unit since its launch this summer. In its first months the crew, an arm of the Office of Tourism and the Office of Land, carried out 700 educational visits and 400 inspections.

Occupying public land
Agents reported 39 cases of businesses occupying public land without a permit. Thirty applications for permits generated €14,806 in revenue, another €17,664 came as payments on overdue fees and sixty fines were issued which brought in €17,861.

Commercial activity
Checks of 47 businesses led to the discovery that 22 were without required paperwork and incurred punitive fines. In addition, other controls resulted in 17 proceedings being brought for illegal commercial activities. In those cases, €90,628 in fines were issued, plus fines totalling €14,050 for failure to respect established operating hours.

Twenty-seven controls were conducted at seven of the island's rental car agencies. These led to penalties of €153,000 for carrying on business activity in areas zoned as rural and using public parking spaces for rental cars without the required permit. Activity was shut down at three businesses and three rural-zoned plots were cordoned off for that reason.

Tourism
In tourism, charges were brought in ten cases following checks of one hundred dwellings. One business with 17 apartments was forced to close when the owners were discovered in absence of the required permit. In that case litigation is being sought. The checks targeted a random assortment of businesses picked by a council task force to develop a summer inspections roadmap.

Forty-three thousand euros in fines were issued after sites were found to be offering accommodation online (infractions that were later corroborated with the discovery of guests). As for the task of regularising tourist-use lodgings, 173 checks were conducted and 354 new rentals declared, not to mention an additional 90 cases pending processing or checks which are projected to generate two thousand new tourist beds.

In urbanism in 2016, 51 proceedings opened to re-establish businesses' legal standing will also have punitive effects. Currently, 43 corrective measures have been pursued, of which 25 were completed. Since the start of the present legislative session, 60 of the 99 disciplinary measures sought have been applied in full. Thirty-three resulted in demolition orders, 26 regularised business activity through available legal channels (legalisation or partial or full voluntary demolition) and one case expired. Urbanism fines revenues in this legislative sitting total €242,883.

Educational campaigns
Summer served as the opportunity to collect information for various awareness campaigns this winter: clearing rural land, fixing traditional stone walls and revamping commercial signage in rural areas are just a few. Regularising tourist accommodations, an object of regular questioning and motive for new registrations, will remain a target of outreach.

In Councillor Ferrer's words: “The inspection unit, by applying limits and regulating both commercial activity and land use for tourism, aims to curb unfair competition and ensure the rules of engagement are respected, raising the bar in terms of tourism and social well-being.”

The superior court of justice in the Balearic Islands (TSJB, for its initials in Catalan) issued a partial ruling on the Formentera Council's suit challenging Decret 20/2015, a statute of the regional tourism law. The court, finding Title II of the statute does not comply with the law, declared it to be null.

In its verdict, the TSJB says the law's preamble contradictorily pledges to provide the Balearic island councils with “broad freedoms” —an idea which is reiterated in nine of Title II's chapters— to develop the content of the different chapters. However, the ruling reads, “the affirmations made in Decret 20/2015 are fictitious”, pointing out that “in practise the councils aren't given the ability to regulate on areas of local jurisdiction”.

According to CiF tourism councillor Alejandra Ferrer, the verdict is proof that the regional tourism law encroached on the authority of island councils. (The island of Mallorca, which has never been given authority on tourism, presents an exception.) Formentera's legal services will now study their next move. Annulment, they say, is a possibility. In Ferrer's words, “it is our belief that the rest of the decree's titles are also contradictory, given they fail to bestow the island councils with the legislative authority which they are due”.

Formentera Council (CiF) president Jaume Ferrer, tourism councillor Alejandra Ferrer, and chair of the Formentera Farmers' Cooperative, Carlos Marí, will attend an awards ceremony celebrating sustainable tourism in the Balearics in 2016. The ceremony is scheduled for 8.00pm in the Baluart museum of contemporary and modern art of Palma de Mallorca.

The Council will be awarded a prize for the best initiative in sustainable tourism for its rural revival project, Recuperació del camp a Formentera. The bid to establish a reserve of land is also an effort to promote jobs needed to preserve rural landscapes or return them to their earlier state and jobs in vegetable and livestock farming. Such initiatives, explained President Ferrer, help to preserve Formentera's culture, customs and local identity.

“Preserving and caring for our countryside means working our fields and protecting everything that makes the Formentera landscape unique”, said Ferrer. On Formentera, an island dedicated 100% to tourism, it is absolutely necessary to take clear steps and create incentives to work in the fields and in livestock farming. Such rural revival makes up an important part of sustainable tourism to the extent that it helps preserve our culture, customs and identity, ultimately the reason people visit our island.

The president expressed his thanks for the honorary award, an effort to disseminate, recognise and incentivise best practises in the Balearics, promoting the islands as destination in quality, sustainable tourism.

This morning, Thursday September 22, as part of the island's tourist-appreciation day, Dia del Turista, the Formentera Council made a special salute to Federico and Gisela Schmidt, celebrating 50 years of Formentera visits. The couple took their first trip to the island in 1966. For many years the two spent their time on Formentera in a house in es Ca Marí, which they later sold. Since that time, they have spent their visits to the island lodging at their daughter's house in Venda des Pi des Català. Despite a recent spill at home, Federico made it out to the island to celebrate his 93rd birthday. “Every fibre of me loves Formentera. All I wanted was to be here today”, he said. Molts anys i bons!