The Government announces grants for the economic and commercial reactivation of the Palma Maritime P

The grants, included in the Project for improving energy efficiency and circularity, aim to compensate and reactivate the economy of businesses in the area.

The Ministry of Business, Employment, and Energy, through the General Directorate of Business, Self-Employed and Commerce, will allocate 3 million euros from the sustainable tourism tax (ITS) to the Project for energy efficiency and circularity of the Palma Maritime Promenade to advance towards deseasonalization and adaptation to climate change.

Minister Alejandro Sáenz de San Pedro highlighted the importance of this project: "we seek to help those activities and businesses located in one of Palma's commercial tourism hubs such as the Maritime Promenade, to recover and adapt to the changing circumstances associated with the tourist market. And this will be possible thanks to the grants from the sustainable tourism tax."

The remodeling initiated in 2022 on the Palma Maritime Promenade by the Port Authority and the Palma City Council, which aims to improve the accessibility and sustainability of the area, has affected companies: on the one hand, with the reduction of people's influx, and on the other, because it has caused them to have to invest to adapt to the requirements and new regulations.

In this sense, Sáenz de San Pedro remarked: "at the Govern we are aware of the need to support and facilitate the work of the affected establishments that have invested in improvements aimed at energy efficiency and sustainability, such as lighting, air conditioning, machinery... That is why we are launching a call for grants to compensate and reactivate the economy of businesses located on the Maritime Promenade, which will also generate value for the citizens and the tourist sector by achieving more sustainable and energy-efficient establishments."

The call for grants for the economic and commercial reactivation of the establishments and businesses located and affected by the works of the remodeling project of the Palma port Maritime Promenade will have an economic amount of 3 million euros and may benefit micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as entrepreneurs, the self-employed, or communities of goods.

Also, it is planned that the works of the Maritime Promenade will be completed on April 16 and officially inaugurated in October. This was confirmed yesterday, February 19, by the president of the Balearic Port Authority (APB), Javier Sanz, who participated in a talk on the COPE network, after statements to the media at an event in Palma by the president of the Association of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists of the Maritime Promenade, Manuel Jiménez, had said that from the APB and the company executing the works, it had been communicated to him that the works would end at the end of May.

After participating in the presentation of the project to improve Energy Efficiency and Circularity of the Palma Maritime Promenade within the call for the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS), Martínez celebrated the end of actions that, although demanded, have caused a lot of damage to shops and businesses in the area.

"We want this to result in a Maritime Promenade that is the envy of the entire Mediterranean," said the representative of the merchants and entrepreneurs, who expressed his desire to recover the wide commercial fabric that existed a few years ago and, going further, to transform the environment into an area not only of leisure but also of restoration and commerce.

Once the completion of the works between April and May has been set, Martínez highlighted the urgency of some measures facing the start of the tourist season, such as the total opening to traffic of streets such as Aigua Dolça and Monseñor Palmer and that the Marivent deterrent parking, along with other measures, be intensely promoted. "We need to recover parking spaces," he insisted.

The project is framed within the objectives established by the Annual Plan for the Promotion of Sustainable Tourism, for the period 2024-2025, which prioritizes actions that contribute to the protection and modernization of the natural and urban environment, that promote the deseasonalization of tourism, and that improve the energy efficiency and sustainability of the infrastructures.