TOURIST BEDS STOCK EXCHANGE CONSORTIUM (CBAT)

By project BRANDTour

Published on 21 November 2018

Spain

About this good practice

Consortium (CBAT) was created by Regional Government of the Balearic Islands in 2008, to solve certain situations generated in the past of precipitated tourism growth&as a way to guarantee the quality of the tourist offer&balance offer&demand, there is a general obligation for the sector to purchase&sell tourist beds. This means that for a new tourist bed, an old one should be retired from the market. Any tourist establishment acquiring new tourist beds, has to pay a "bed fee" to the Regional Ministry of Tourism(RMT). This initiative has favoured the creation of the "Tourist Beds Stock Exchange" which generates money that is used to improve the quality of tourism infrastructures, to rehabilitate tourist areas, to encourage the conversion of obsolete tourist establishments into social, cultural, recreational or sports projects, to increase the quality, to diversify the tourist offer, etc.
Main stakeholders&beneficiaries: municipalities & non profit tourism entities, which submit to the Consortium a list of investment project proposals.
Ultimate beneficiaries are tourists&the tourism industry (businesses) since both benefit from higher quality infrastructures&better tourist resorts.
Tourist accommodation propietaries have to notify to the RMT the closing of activities and/or the permanent beds shut down.
These beds go to an "internal register of available beds" owned by the RMT.New hotels/tourist accommodation wishing to offer more beds into the market have to BUY them.

Expert opinion

This is an interesting example of public-private cooperation that relies on collecting a “bed fee”, a type of tax that tourism companies have to pay if they want to provide more sleeping positions in their facilities. The fund collected over the years are re-invested into the local infrastructure which in the long run is also beneficial for the entire tourism sector.
The model provides thereby some kind of continuous improvement of what would be in other areas the industrial and technology infrastructure on which sustainable growth can be generated. Public and private stakeholders take thereby collectively responsibility for the economic basis of the region.

Mart Veliste

Works at Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform

Resources needed

Cost: 0€
Available funding for 2017: 26 M€
Human resources required: too large to quantify
Participating entities should cover part of the investments, co-financing at least 20% of the cost of the projects that need financing. Maximum amount financed by the Consortium is € 500,000 per project.

Evidence of success

This practice is a very good example of public and private cooperation to achieve a common goal, which is the restoration and improvement of tourist areas.
Between 2013 and 2015 CBAT has subsidized 40 local projects with a total investment of 15.7M€ .
For the 2017 new Call, there are 50 projects with a total investment of 26M€ from which CBAT will cover around 16M€ and the municipalities 10M€.

Potential for learning or transfer

This practice can be a solution for mature tourist regions needing to legalise old beds or to balance offer and demand through the purchasing and selling of tourist beds. The funds collected from these operations can in turn, be invested in the modernisation and rehabilitation of mature tourist zones. It is a good way to establish private and public sector collaboration in order to maintain and guarantee the good quality of the tourism infrastructures and services.

The practice has proven to be highly sustainable, since all the tourist areas have improved a lot after 10 years of application. They look now clean, tidy, renewed and of very good quality. Ministry of Tourism pays part of the investments but the municipalities or the entities involved, have to pay the rest of money. This guarantees that no public money is given "for free" and ensures high involvement of all parties.