Tourist Centers have to reduce their expenses and increase their income to be viable. It seems obvious, but that is what the plan presented this week by Councilor Ástrid Pérez is proposing, eight months after...
Tourist Centers have to reduce their expenses and increase their income to be viable. It seems obvious, but that is what the plan presented this week by Councilor Ástrid Pérez is proposing, eight months after the new government group of the Cabildo took over. The problem is that to reach that conclusion, not even half an hour of analysis was needed. And the maxim of any company to obtain profits is clear. The problem is how to achieve it, and there are serious shortcomings in that Viability Plan that has put the Works Council and the Haría City Council on a war footing.
Obviously, the Cabildo cannot continue to allow the drift that the Tourist Centers have been dragging on for years, which should be a gold mine and are only an inexhaustible source of losses, due to waste and the terrible historical management to which they have been subjected. And it is also undeniable that one of those black holes is in the personnel chapter.
But if you cannot close your eyes to that reality, even less can you think that this is the only source of all evils. Because those who have governed the Tourist Centers for years have not been the workers, but the politicians. And the economic waste that has been carried out by renegotiating labor agreements is only part of the waste. And now, with lean times and the decrease in tourists, all those excesses are being paid for dearly. But the politicians don't pay for them, the citizens of this island do.
Therefore, it is clear that it is necessary to adopt urgent measures. But if these only involved reducing the working conditions of the workers, a viability plan would not be necessary. A document of this type means assuming that the reforms to be undertaken must be much more profound.
However, the text presented by the Cabildo, after eight months of waiting, focuses fundamentally on cutting expenses in two areas: the workers and the fee that is paid to the town councils of Haría, Tinajo and Yaiza and to the Cabildo itself.
In theory, it proposes to pay a fixed amount lower than the current one, and pay the rest based on a percentage of the profits obtained by the company. In practice, and considering that the Tourist Centers are seriously deficient, the town councils will still have to pay the bill. And that, without poking or cutting in the management. Without being responsible for what is done or undone.
And to make matters worse, there is no payment plan for the millionaire debt that already exists with the town councils for previous years, and that continues to grow today. What's more, it is proposed that if they want to collect, they "condone" part of that debt. Come on, forgive her.
In short, and translating it to the family economy, it is as if a person who owes several months of rent calls his landlord and tells him that he is only going to pay part of it and, in addition, warns him that in the future, he will pay the monthly payments depending on the income he has or what he has left at the end of the month, if he has any left. And all this, while lowering the salary of the domestic worker and telling her to work more hours per day, because in recent years her working conditions have improved excessively, but at the same time she maintains pay television in her house and hires an economic advisor, a finance expert and even an image consultant to face these changes.
In fact, that is what has been done from the Tourist Centers, hiring three new managers, in addition to external companies, which are added to those that already existed, while asking workers and town councils to tighten their belts.
And if at least a clear diagnosis and remedy were seen, the expense of those new salaries would be less burdensome. But if what we have on the table is only a cut plan, which even calculates the money they are going to save by not undertaking works in the Centers (let's hope that nothing breaks or deteriorates so as not to upset the accounts), those salaries hurt even more.
Saying that the sale of tickets or souvenirs is going to increase is not enough. Nor is it enough to propose that they are going to save 30 percent on purchases from suppliers, if that is not accompanied by a real study that supports it, and explains exactly where they are going to buy and at what price to achieve that saving.
Therefore, in the other option that can be seen in the document could be what all this really entails: privatizing the management, at least of the hotel industry. And it is proposed to create a technical committee to study a "change in the management model" of the Tourist Centers, made up not only of EPEL technicians, but also of "external" people. It seems that with six managers, plus the advisors, it is not enough.
If the conclusion is that they are not capable of making the Centers viable, they should stop using euphemisms and state it clearly, because that is another debate, and the people of Lanzarote have the right to know it as soon as possible and participate in it. And it is that beyond the conflicting opinions that this possibility may arouse, what should be had is absolute transparency. Both saying what exactly is intended, and clarifying in whose hands or who may be left the decision. Because unfortunately, the island has too many bad experiences to give votes of blind confidence.
