Rafael Rodríguez Bermúdez (Sedella, Málaga, 1962) is the new head of the Department of Tourism and Trade of the Andalusian Regional Government, now the responsibility of Izquierda Unida (United Left) thanks to the pact signed between this formation and the PSOE to share the Government of this autonomous community. He has extensive political experience and has served as a member of the Andalusian Parliament, councilman of the City Council of Malaga, and vice president of the Provincial Council and the Tourism Board of Malaga.
This is the first interview in which the new minister speaks in depth about golf tourism, a segment he sees growth potential in Andalusia and whose future promotion strategy is yet to be elucidated. What seems clear is that the era of sponsorship of major tournaments is about to come to an end, if it has not already come to an end.
-There is some concern in the golf sector because it is feared that the new Department of Tourism, now under the responsibility of Izquierda Unida, is not equally aware of the importance of this segment as a deseasonalizer of the tourist season, high spending at the destination, longer average stays, etc. Is this concern well founded?
-It is necessary to differentiate what has been the experience of golf development in Andalusia in recent years, which has been linked almost exclusively to real estate development, and has not been for a tourism strategy but of a speculative nature, and against this concept of speculation Izquierda Unida has been against and will continue to be against it.
Any development that puts a golf course to charge 30,000 euros more to anyone who buys one of the four thousand homes that surround it is an action that Izquierda Unida will neither endorse nor support. We will support those projects that have an objective of tourism development and commitments to sustainability, environmental, water purification, etc..
From this point of view, we have absolutely nothing against it, but we consider that golf tourism is an important and profitable segment in Andalusia, which is the autonomous community with the most golf courses in Spain. It is necessary to take advantage of this existing infrastructure to achieve tourist flows that break the seasonality and generate wealth, employment and future in Andalusia. Therefore, those who consider golf as a complement to real estate and speculative activity will not find dialogue with Izquierda Unida; but those who consider golf in its tourist aspect, with an environmental strategy compatible with the development of the territory, will have no problems with us.
-This means that there is no problem when it comes to supporting golf in its touristic facet…
-Of course, not only do we see it positively but, as I have already said, Andalusia already has a golf course infrastructure that must be optimized from a territorial and autonomous community point of view. Now we have to be able to make that infrastructure more competitive to attract a tourist segment that is important or should be important both quantitatively and qualitatively, as in terms of employment, expenditure, etc., and which is also a substantial segment to combat seasonality.
Therefore, from the Regional Ministry we are going to carry out a strategic plan against seasonality in the tourism sector in Andalusia, which we want to do in the first months of 2013, and one of the elements that we will put on the table in that plan is how to take advantage of the different tourism segments that exist in Andalusia, which make us competitive and make us different with respect to other Mediterranean destinations, and one of those segments is golf.
This requires first of all to see what has been done to date and what has not worked, because I do not consider myself to have the little light of wisdom and to come here with ideas that no one else has had. I suppose that this idea that I am putting forward has been held by all the counselors who have preceded me, but the truth is that we have not been able to effectively put all our potential on the table and obtain the results that this potential makes possible. Therefore, we will have to see what has been done and where we have failed in order to draw conclusions that will facilitate our work in the future, and that work has to be translated into promoting Andalusia in golf tourism, putting Andalusia in the first pages of tourism, especially Anglo-Saxon and Central European, in the months from October to May.
-That would require a major communication strategy….
-This requires a major communication strategy, a promotion strategy linked to it, institutional collaboration and cooperation, because at the end of the day these are public resources used by one and all, and therefore the optimization of public resources requires that the different administrations with competences in the matter pool their efforts and resources, and it also requires a strategy of collaboration and investment by the private sector. Because in the end we are talking about providing public resources to improve the economy in general, but also to improve the private economy’s profit and loss accounts, and therefore it requires an effort not only in terms of assistance and collaboration and contribution of ideas, but also in terms of contribution of resources from the private sector. And all this is what we want to put on the table in this plan against seasonality, in which we understand that, especially in the field of tourism promotion, public-private collaboration must be substantial.
-One of the pillars on which the promotion of the golf tourism segment by the Regional Government of Andalusia has been based has been the sponsorship of major tournaments, among them the Andalusia Masters, whose third edition is scheduled for October. On the one hand, we would like to know if you are in a position to confirm its celebration and, on the other hand, if the Regional Ministry of Tourism is going to continue with this strategy of sponsoring large golf events.
-I believe that the times do not advise large investments concentrated in a single event; not the times, the numbers, I would say. We are in an emergency economic situation, with increasingly limited public budgets, and that requires optimizing to the maximum every public euro that is put on the table. Spending public money in disproportionate proportions for a single event does not seem to me to be in keeping with the times of sacrifice, adjustments and budgetary limitations in which we live. Let’s see how all this develops.
A few weeks have passed since this Government took office, and in the case of the Andalusia Masters there are also shared competences between ministries such as the Regional Ministry of Tourism and Trade, which basically has promotion competences, and the Regional Ministry of Sports and Culture, which in this case would have direct competence for the organization of the tournament. Therefore, we shall see how this materializes. But, as I have already said, I believe that at this time we have to optimize resources and make the most of every public euro. I am of the idea that in these times it is very difficult to justify that practically all the money available for tourist promotion that the Junta de Andalucía has is concentrated in two or three events.
-Has your Department already prepared the budgets for the promotion of golf tourism?
-No, because the 2012 budget is an absolutely limited budget, which has also undergone a very strong financial rebalancing process and which has placed us, at this stage of the year, practically with an almost liquidated budget. Therefore, for 2012 little more than what has already been done and what has been committed can be done, due to budgetary limitations. And the 2013 budget will have a part already committed for investments made in 2012, and another part that will have to be articulated and that we will have to see and prioritize. We have not yet started this process. Tourism promotion will have an important weight in the budget of the Regional Ministry of Tourism and Commerce, as it cannot be otherwise, and within it, the promotion of a tourist segment such as golf will also have its weight, although we are not in a position to quantify it right now.
-The Andalusian Government has recently approved two golf course projects (in Castellar and Barbate, both in the province of Cadiz) as they have been declared of tourist interest. Do you agree with both projects?
-There is one that we have taken to the Governing Council, which is the one in Castellar. The one of Barbate was taken by the previous Government. There is a decree that regulates the golf courses of tourist interest that has been made and therefore it is not something that the present Government has developed, and what we have said is that those projects that really have a tourist character will not have any problem, and that those that under the umbrella of a tourist denomination hide a real estate promotion and bypass the Territorial Management Plan, create new urban nuclei, have no place. We believe that Castellar is a reasonable project, with only 150 dwellings, a hotel project, aparthotel, elements of sustainability? Another project with 1,500 or 2,000 dwellings is something else: they will be residential developments, but not golf courses of tourist interest.
-The sector is very concerned about the possible application of the general VAT rate to golf courses, since they now bear the reduced rate, and there are also rumors about the possibility of implementing some kind of specific tax on golf. Do you have any information about this?
-It is necessary to differentiate between the competences of the State and those of the Autonomous Communities. The central government has proposed an increase in the reduced VAT rates, including the one for the tourist sector, which is 8 percent. It would be a rise to 21 percent, that is to say, a 162 percent increase. We are in total disagreement with the increase of VAT to the tourist sector. In the first place because it is an indirect tax and we have always stated, from our left-wing political position, that the fiscal balance must be achieved not by giving priority to the increase of indirect taxes, which everybody pays regardless of their purchasing power, but by giving priority to direct taxes, which depend on the purchasing power of each individual. Therefore, from an ideological perspective we would be against it, but apart from that, we believe that in these times of difficulty, of crisis, to raise in such a spectacular way the VAT to a sector which is the one that keeps the Andalusian economy afloat, in a precarious way, in complicated conditions, with an unacceptable level of unemployment, but the one that keeps us afloat, would be absolutely suicidal. Therefore, I hope that this equalization of the reduced VAT of the tourist sector to 21 percent does not materialize. It would be bad news for the tourist sector, for the economy and for employment in Spain and Andalusia.
And, with respect to the other issue, I am not aware that there is a specific tax on the table at this time that affects golf.
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