The mayor of Benidorm offers his collaboration to Aptur before the uncertainties posed by the new Tourism Law

Toni Pérez has attended this morning to the presentation in Invattur of the campaign "belegalmyfriend.com" launched by the Spanish Federation of Associations of Housing and Tourist Apartments (Fevitur) to combat the intrusion and promote the rental of the tourist accommodation offer regulated in Spain, and has participated in the closure of the annual meeting held by the Association of Tourist Apartment Companies of the Costa Blanca and Benidorm (Aptur), in which its president, Miguel Angel Sotillos has been re-elected. Along with Toni Pérez and Miguel Angel Sotillos, the head of the Assistance and Inspection Service of the Directorate General of Tourism, Javier Herraiz, and the Manager of the Costa Blanca Board of Trustees of the Provincial Government, José Mancebo, participated in the closing ceremony.

The mayor said he was "side by side with a sector," he said, "which is showing that it has things clear" and, in addition to making available to Aptur the services managed by Visit Benidorm, reiterated the availability of the City Hall to collaborate with the sector "doing what we have to improve services, the urban scene and our security and satisfaction rates for those who visit us".

Toni Pérez also referred to the current situation of uncertainty that the regulated tourist accommodation sector is going through, with the entry into force of the new Law on Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality of the Valencian Community, and especially for what it establishes in its article 65, which transfers to the consistories the obligation to issue reports of urban compatibility as a requirement for a property to be considered as a dwelling for tourist use.

The mayor recalled that since Benidorm had been together with the sector "open to dialogue, collaborating and participating in all drafts we have presented at the Consell de Turisme, but it is true that this article 65, its final wording, is the result of an amendment presented after this process in the parliamentary procedure of the Valencian Parliament, where as it has been demonstrated the vote of a simple majority is sufficient to introduce a factor that someone may not have calculated its real impact on something that is fundamental, at least for the economy of Benidorm, as it is the fact that the regulated offer of which we enjoy and enjoy today, can continue to grow and do it with quality ".

"This breaks with the work of the sector and the administrations involved, in the end," he added, "are the municipalities that have to modulate what is established by a law that deposits in our urban skills a solution that everyone may be waiting, but that formulation is slow and can only be undertaken with a specific modification of the General Plans ".

Toni Pérez concluded by providing an expressive datum about the reality of this sector in Benidorm and what until now has meant the entry into force of the new Law. The last scale of Benidorm for the year 2017, highlights the upward evolution of the sector of tourist apartments throwing the fact that Benidorm had added more than 3,500 new regulated tourist apartments, a figure that placed the offer of the city in that segment, in a total of more than 25,000 regulated tourist apartments. "It is a very relevant fact," he said, "which clashes with the number of favorable urban compatibility certificates that, since the publication of the Law, on June 8, have been granted throughout the Valencian Community, and that has been a total of 15 certificates. When a norm throws data of this type, -concluded-, perhaps it is not generating the wished fruits by those that participated in the writing of the same one or, as it is the case, of which they amended it without taking into consideration the reality of the sector and the participatory process that this Law entailed.