Companies in the Spanish tourism sector are strategic for the country’s economy, due to their economic weight, territorial capillarity, job creation and driving power over other sectors. The hotel industry, as an economic sector dedicated to the provision of accommodation and food services, is the main tourist activity and accounts for 40% of tourism-related companies and 60% of their employment.

Energy is one of the operating costs that most determines the profitability of the hospitality sector. In a bar, restaurant or accommodation, energy consumption does not depend solely on square meters. It depends on the intensity of the kitchen, the number of services, the schedule, the presence of terraces, the cold storage rooms, the type of air conditioning, the production of ACS (Sanitary Hot Water), the state of maintenance and the management of the contracted power.

After the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, and the growth of international instability in energy costs, technological modernization is key to the survival and growth of companies in the tourism sector. Especially, renovating hotel and catering equipment in Spain can be vital to ensure profitability, optimize operating costs and maintain the competitiveness particularly of small and micro-enterprises in this sector, whose contribution is essential for the Spanish economy.

The direct granting of this aid is justified for reasons of public, social, economic and environmental interest, in the terms of article 22.2.c) of Law 38/2003, of 17 November, General Subsidies, since it is not ideal a competitive competition procedure but an open, homogeneous and non-selective instrument, aimed at helping the tourism sector to renovate hotel and catering equipment and accelerate actions that contribute to energy efficiency.

Under the provisions of article 26.6 of Law 50/1997, of 27 November, of the Government, the affected citizens are given a hearing and any additional contributions can be made by other persons or entities.

Structure of the Royal Decree

The draft royal decree consists of an exhibition part, a dispositive part that has 17 articles and a final part that consists of two final provisions.

The claims must be presented using the attached document model, or a similar one, clearly ordering and separating the different comments made, and identifying the paragraph and the text to which each one refers.

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In general, the contributions received will be considered to be open to public dissemination. The parts of the information submitted that, in the opinion of the interested party, should be treated confidentially and therefore should not be freely disseminated, should be specifically indicated in the text of the contribution itself, not considering for this purpose the generic messages of confidentiality of the information.

Texto del proyecto de Real Decreto [PDF] [238.73 KB]

Memoria del proyecto de Real Decreto [PDF] [397.91 KB]

Modelo de documento para presentar alegaciones [DOCX] [23.4 KB]