Expanding pensioners’ holiday scheme ‘puts cost on hotels’

IT has been announced that the government has awarded a two-year programme of social tourism travel through Imserso, the popular Spanish pensioner holiday system.
The new contract offers a total of 938,000 subsidised places, representing 40,000 more than in the previous programme, it was confirmed by the Hotel Business Association of Benidorm and the Costa Blanca and Valencia (Hosbec) on Wednesday June 24.
The estimated value for each of the two seasons is €331 million covering three areas: the Canaries, the Balearics and the Interior.
Company UTE Mundosenior was the successful bidder for the management of the Imserso programme.
Hosbec President Antonio Mayor said: “The current level set is €20. At this stage there are three winners in the Imserso programme: the state, because for every €1 it invest it receives a €1.50 return, the contractor and the user. The hotel industry, however, is losing money. We do not want to make money through Imserso, we just do not want to lose!” He went on to propose that the price of the Imserso should be raised by one or two euros to help retrieve a small margin in costs for the hospitality industry in the region.
Hosbec Vice President Javier García also believes that this small increase of 10 per cent would make a satisfactory difference. He said: “Each person must be covered for bed, food and entertainment. It is laughable – it cannot be done on the budget the hotels are given.”