The mayor defends in a national event how Benidorm has balanced tourist and residential uses

The mayor, Toni Pérez, has defended in the national event Guest 2017 how Benidorm has balanced tourist and residential uses, thus preventing phenomena such as 'gentrification' or 'tourist phobia' that have broken out in other destinations.
 
Pérez has exposed this reality during his participation in a round table on how to address the communication crises generated around the 'overtourism' and to value the responsible initiatives in business and tourist destinations. A table organized in the framework of the national event of the tourism industry that takes place these days in Madrid, and in which the presidents of the national hotel management association CEHAT, Joan Molas, have also participated; and of AEHM, Gabriel García Alonso; and that has been moderated by the general director of the Interface Tourism Spain agency, María Sánchez-Grela.
 
During his speech, the mayor said that Benidorm "is a city designed, planned and built to serve both, tourists and residents," in which "tourism does not leave anyone from home" and where there is no "process of displacement of the local population".
 
Pérez stressed that "in the DNA of Benidorm is written the faculty of sharing leisure and relaxation in the same urban space," which allows tourists and residents "live in absolute harmony" and that tourism "does not look like a danger or a threat, but as a source of economic and cultural wealth "generating" work "," progress "and" tolerance ".
 
Before a hundred attendees, the mayor has clarified that "Benidorm is the paradigm of mass tourism" and "the democratization of vacations", which "does not mean that it is a mass destination" or urban dense. In fact, he recalled that in the words of urban planner and architect Óscar Tusquets, "Benidorm is the solution to mass tourism"; while in urban plan "thirteen Benidorm would empty the entire Spanish coast" of urbanizations and constructions.
 
Discarded "the struggle" for the occupation of urban space and after reaffirming that the Benidorm model is currently based on sustainability and tourism intelligence, the mayor has indicated that the destination faces another problem: the "rent" holiday not regulated ". An activity that constitutes "an enrichment formula without following the rules" and so the owners avoid paying taxes.