Rafael Rodríguez Bermúdezis the new minister for tourism and commerce with the Junta de Andalucía (regional government), a portfolio which is now the responsibility of the Izquierda Unida (United Left) party as a result of a pact with the ruling PSOE (Socialist Party) to establish a coalition government in the region. He has had extensive experience in politics, including deputy in the Andalucian parliament, Málaga City Hall councillor, and vice president of the Diputación Provincial (provincial parliament) and Patronato de Turismo de Málaga (tourism promotion board).

This is the first interview in which the new minister has talked about golf tourism, an industry with the potential for growth in Andalucía but with its future strategic plan still undefined. What does seem clear is that the era of the Junta sponsoring major golf tournaments is about to end – if it hasn’t already.

–There is a certain amount of concern in the golf industry that the new ministry of tourism and commerce, now the responsibility of Izquierda Unida, is not as sensitive to the importance of this sector in easing the seasonal nature of tourism, and attracting tourists who tend to spend more, stay longer on average, etc. Is this concern justified?

–It’s important to differentiate what has been our experience of the development of golf over the past few years, linked almost exclusively to real estate promotion, and not based on touristic strategy but rather speculation. Izquierda Unida has been opposed to, and will remain opposed to, that speculative concept.

Any development that builds a golf course in order to charge an additional 30,000 euros for each person who purchases one of the 4,000 properties surrounding it… that is something Izquierda Unida will neither approve nor support. On the other hand, we will support those projects with a tourist development objective and a commitment to sustainability, the environment, wastewater treatment, etc.

From that point of view, we have absolutely nothing against golf tourism. On the contrary, we consider it to be an important segment in Andalucía – the region with the most number of golf courses in Spain – and one that we can use to our benefit. We should take advantage of the current infrastructure to attract visitors who break the seasonal nature of tourism and generate wealth, employment and a future for Andalucía. So those who see golf as a complementary activity to real estate and speculation will not have any dialogue with Izquierda Unida, but those who look at golf in its tourist dimension, with an environmental strategy compatible with the region’s development, will have no problem with us.

–So that means there is no problem supporting golf in its tourism facet?

–Of course. Not only do we look at it in a positive way but, as I said before, Andalucía currently has a golf course infrastructure that we should optimise from a local and regional viewpoint. What we need to do now is make this infrastructure more competitive so that it attracts a tourist segment that is, or should be, important both in a quantitative and a qualitative sense, for employment, revenue, etc., as well as being a key segment to ease the seasonal nature of tourism.

To that end, the ministry is going to establish a strategic plan to counter the seasonal nature of tourism in Andalucía, which we want to have ready in the first few months of 2013, and one of the elements we will be putting on the table is how to take advantage of the existing tourist segments in Andalucía, what makes us competitive and stand out from other Mediterranean destinations, and one of those segments is golf.

That will require, in the first place, reviewing what has been done to date and what doesn’t work, because I don’t claim to have all the answers or believe I have ideas that others haven’t also thought of before. I’m assuming that this idea I outline here has been shared by all the previous ministers, but the truth is that we haven’t been able to effectively place our potential on the table and obtain results from this potential. With that in mind, we need to look back at what’s been done and where we’ve failed, to draw conclusions that enable us to improve our efforts in the future, and that means boosting Andalucia’s potential in golf tourism, placing Andalucía on the first pages of tourism, Anglo-Saxon and central European above all, in the months from October to May.

- That will necessitate a major communication strategy, a marketing strategy tied to that, and collaboration and cooperation at an institutional level, because in the end they are public resources that we all use, so the optimisation of these resources requires all the official administrations with authority in this area to combine their efforts and resources, and it also requires collaboration with and investment by the private sector.

–In the end, what we’re talking about is using public resources to improve the general economy, while also improving the accounts and results of the private economy, and that requires not only a strong effort to become involved, collaborate and suggest ideas but also to provide resources from the private sector. All of that is what we want to place on the table, to prepare this plan to counter the seasonal nature of tourism, and, especially when it comes to tourist promotion, public-private collaboration has to be substantial.

–One of the pillars on which promotion of the golf tourism segment has been based by the Junta de Andalucía is sponsorship of major tournaments such as the Andalucía Masters, with the third edition scheduled for October. On the one hand, we would like to know if you are able to confirm that this tournament will go ahead and, on the other, will the tourism ministry maintain its strategy of sponsoring major golf events?

–I believe that in these times it is not advisable to invest major amounts in one single event – the figures don’t justify that. The current situation is one of emergency, with public budgets being reduced more and more, and that means optimising to the maximum each euro of public money. Spending vast amounts of public funds on one single event is not, I believe, in tune with this current era of sacrifice, economic readjustments and budgetary restrictions. We are going to see how all this evolves. It has only been a few weeks since the new government too power and, in the case of the Andalucía Masters, authority is shared between the ministry of tourism and commerce, which is basically responsible for marketing, and the ministry of sport and culture, which is directly responsible for the organisation of the tournament. So we are going to wait and see what happens. However, as I noted before, I believe that in these times we have to optimise resources and get maximum benefit from each euro of public money. I’m of the opinion that, in these times, it is very difficult to justify spending all the money available to the Junta de Andalucía for tourist promotion on just two or three events.

–Has your ministry prepared a budget for the tourist promotion of golf?

–No, because the 2012 budget is a completely limited one, and it has also undergone a very strong process to re-balance the finances, leaving us – at this time of the year – with almost the whole budget spent. So for 2012 – bearing in mind these budgetary limitations – there is very little more that can be done, other than what has already been undertaken or where there is a specific commitment. Furthermore, part of the 2013 budget will already be taken up with investments made in 2012, while other parts will involve what we still have to draw up and prioritise. We have not yet begun that process. Tourist promotion will have a significant weight within the ministry of tourism and commerce’s budget – it could not be any other way – and the promotion of a key tourist segment such as golf will also have its own weight within that budgetary allocation, though at the moment we are unable to quantify it.

-Finally, the Junta de Andalucía has approved two golf projects (in Castellar and Barbate, both in Cádiz province), declaring them to be of “touristic interest”. Are you in favour of these projects?

–One of these, Castellar, we have taken to the cabinet ourselves. The other one, Barbate, was presented by the previous government. There is an existing decree that regulates golf courses considered to be of touristic interest, and this is not something the current government has overseen. What we’ve said is that projects that truly are of a tourist nature will not have any problems, but those which hide a real estate development under the umbrella of a tourist denomination, avoiding the Plan de Ordenación Territorial (Territorial Distribution Plan) and developing new urban areas, will not be allowed. We believe the Castellar project is a reasonable one, with just 150 homes, a hotel, an aparthotel, sustainability features… Another project with 1,500 or 2,000 homes would be something altogether different: a residential development, yes, but not a golf course of touristic interest.

–The industry is very worried about the possible application of the general VAT rate to golf courses, which currently are subject to a reduced rate, and it is also rumoured that a special tax might be imposed on golf. Do you have any information in this respect?

–You have to differentiate between the state’s responsibilities and those of the autonomous regions. The national government has proposed an increase in the reduced VAT rates, including that applying to tourism, currently at eight per cent. The proposal is to increase this to 21 per cent, that is, a rise of 162 per cent. We completely disagree with any proposal to increase the VAT rate applying to tourism. In the first place because it’s an indirect tax and we have always argued, from our political position on the left, that fiscal balance has to be achieved not by giving priority to an increase in direct taxes – which are paid by everyone irrespective of their earning power – but instead by giving precedence to direct taxes, which depend on each person’s financial capacity to pay. So, from an ideological point of view, we are against the increase, but apart from that we believe that, in these difficult times of crisis, increasing VAT in such a dramatic way for an industry that is keeping the Andalucian economy afloat – an economy that is in a precarious state and suffering tough conditions, with unemployment at unacceptable levels – would be absolutely suicidal. So I hope the current reduced VAT rate applying to the tourism industry is not increased to 21 per cent. It would be bad news for the industry, for the economy and for employment in Spain and Andalucía.

As for the other question, I am not aware of any proposal on the table at the moment to introduce a special tax that would affect golf.

 

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