Hoteliers are removed from Imserso trips due to Minister Belarra's refusal to raise prices

The execution of the next season of Imserso trips is in danger due to the controversial decision of the Ministry of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda not to renew the prices of trips despite the inflationary spiral that a hotel sector that has decided to stand up to the passivity of the Government to reform the program. A large part of the hotel industry that usually participates in the senior travel plan in the Valencian Community has already informed the successful bidder of the lots that they will not extend their contracts. A response to which businessmen from the Balearic Islands are also beginning to join, leaving between the two regions 300,000 places in the air, more than a third of the 816,000 available for next year at the state level. The sector considers that the management of the ministry led by the United Podemos minister, Ione Belarra, is a ruin "multiplied by inflation in the battered hotel accounts after two years of the pandemic", in the words of the president of the Valencian hotel management and from Benidorm (Hosbec), Toni Mayor. The Levante area manages 150,000 program packages and provides some 7,000 hotel beds, so a widespread boycott in the region could put a good part of the places in the travel plan for the elderly that will start in mid-October on the ropes. Related News EDITORIAL opinion Yes Populism puts imserso in check Editorial ABC Ione Belarra's populism translates into lower service prices that are unsustainable for companies in the current inflationary scenario Valencian hoteliers assure this newspaper that there are already "many" the accommodations that have opposed continuing to participate in Imserso trips due to the unaffordable lack of profitability they suffer. They denounce that they have to deal with full board, with drinks, entertainment, Wi-Fi and all the services of a 4-star hotel at 22 euros per night and person. Prices that they already considered derisory before the inflationary pressure, and for which they had asked the Government to review them on several occasions in recent years. With the war in Ukraine as a last straw, the costs for hotel establishments have increased by 30%, which has triggered the losses of the companies attached to the program during the last travel season between refusals by the Executive to include the sector in the plan of economic measures against the effects of the armed conflict. Parallel program This sum of factors has already caused the Valencian hoteliers to make a move and they are already planning the creation of an Imserso behind the Government's back. Hosbec already met last July with the Spanish Federation for the Defense of the Elderly to start laying the foundations "for a private senior travel program" that supplies the benefits of the deseasonalization produced by Imserso trips , «but in an economic framework adjusted to the reality we live in». In the same sense, the Valencian and Benidorm hoteliers plan to meet with more associations and groups of the elderly, "who are still very interested in continuing with trips during the low season and who choose Benidorm as one of their preferred destinations." Related News standard No Hotels warn that the depreciation of the pound and inflation could slow down the arrival of Britons in Spain Antonio Ramírez Cerezo The sector assures that in recent weeks an increase in cancellations has been perceived But the veto to the next campaign extends to other regions. In the Balearic Islands, which receives around 150,000 beneficiaries of the program, the approach of the 44 participating hotels is the same as that of the Valencian accommodations. Such is the concern that the representatives of the workers in the sector in the region have called on hoteliers and the Government to “reach an agreement as soon as possible so that the Balearic Islands have elderly tourists this year through Imserso trips” , assured last Monday in a statement the Federation of Services, Mobility and Consumption of UGT. Sources from the sector assure that they still do not perceive a rejection of the hotels of the insular community in the face of the next Imserso travel season, but they point out that already last year Belarra's refusal to update the prices caused some establishments to decline to extend their participation in the tourism program for the elderly.

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