The Hotel Federation of Ibiza and Formentera lives moments of uncertainty. The board of directors held before the annual meeting last Wednesday at the Sirenis Hotel Twins had the task of appointing the president who is to replace Ana Gordillo at the head of the federation. Ana Gordillo at the head of the employers’ association. However, after just over half an hour of internal debate among the twelve members that make up the Federation, three for each of the territorial associations that make up the Federation, the decision was to leave Gordillo in office pending the resolution of the substantive debate between two ways of understanding what the Federation is to be from now on. There is no doubt that there is a confrontation of models between those who want everything to remain the same with new faces and those who are committed to a profound transformation of the employers’ association.

The general manager of Vibra Hotels, Antonio Domenech, was willing to run for the presidency of the entity because “I had been asked to do so, not for personal ambition,” he confesses to La Voz de Ibiza. However, in view of the fact that his nomination ran the risk of being a mere change of cards in the face of the resistance to the changes he advocates, he opted not to do so. In statements to La Voz de Ibiza, Domenech explained that “it is not about denigrating what has been done” but to bet on“modernizing the structure of the Federation to adapt it to the tremendous challenges we face” and to“flee from a presidentialist management as the current one“. Among the challenges listed, “the debate about the saturationsaturation tourismphobiathe attacks we are suffering, the illegal tourist rental and the negotiation of the future collective bargaining agreement”.
Statutory reform
“It’s no drama. A coach has to be able to choose his players. And I was willing to accede to the position with the objective of providing a service to the organization with a reformist agenda. I had the intention of incorporating prestigious businessmen to my team, people with relevant agendas not only in Ibiza, very powerful people, and also to incorporate some more professionals to help us on a daily basis”, explained the manager of the chain with the most beds in Ibiza and with hotels in Mallorca and Menorca. In this line, he sighs with the creation of specific work areas for each member of his team and to meet at least once a month. Not like now in which the board of directors barely meets and sometimes with little attendance. This idea of Domench, which has the backing of Palladium Hotel Group, clashes with the statutes of the entity, since the board is made up of president, vice president and secretary of the associations of the Bay of Sant Antoni, Ibiza, Santa Eulària-Sant Joan and Formentera. Executing Domenech’s government program would therefore require statutory changes to reform the board of directors or to create a new governing body of a more executive nature, compatible with the board of directors and the assembly. Something that, in Domenech’s opinion, is not a problem that cannot be solved with willpower. “It’s not something that can’t be done if there’s a will,” he clarifies. “The Fomento del Turismo is an exemplary entity, with professionals who are doing a great job and an involved board that works,” Domenech exemplified. That, no more and no less, is what the reformist collective aspires to.
Who will be the president?
This idea has come up against “a lot of people who do not want changes and in these circumstances it is clear that I do not have to be in front and that is why I finally did not present the candidacy and we have agreed to continue talking to unify criteria, without dramas, or quarrels, or schisms. In these circumstances it was hasty to appoint a new president”.

Domenech clarified that “I have no personal ambition nor do I need to take on a new responsibility because I already have enough with my obligations”. For this reason, he stated that ” what is important at the moment is the management model and not the person who assumes the presidency”. It is a mistake to consider exclusively the configuration of the blocks based on the size of the companies. The big ones, with some exceptions, are with Vibra and Palladium. “There are also quite a few individual hotels that support what we have proposed,” says the Vibra executive.
Background discussions
In addition to structural changes, there are also substantive debates on the overrepresentation of small hotels vis-à-vis the large chains and on the valuation of the of leisure in Ibiza’s offer.
“The leisure is very important for Ibiza and adds a lot to the destination and we must defend it for all that it brings us. However, it seems that this is not the line of a part of the associates,” Domenech admitted to La Voz de Ibiza. The scarce presence of the Hotel Federation of Ibiza and Formentera before the public opinion and the administrations also raises tensions among the associates. And, as always, comparisons are odious. The hoteliers consulted regret that the Federation is in “irrelevance” compared to the work done by their colleagues in Mallorca and Menorca. This is what La Voz de Ibiza has been able to gather from the numerous testimonies collected.
Divisions
That the fees are paid according to the number of beds and instead the vote is based on one vote per company is also part of the debate on the model.“It doesn’t make sense that the vote of a hostel with 20 rooms is worth the same as that of Vibra with 5,000 rooms,” Domenech exemplified.
The names?
The Hotel Federation refused to disclose the information on the names of the 12 current members that make up the board of directors and who have in their hands the election of the next president and, therefore, the model with which the Federation will be managed.
In addition to Domenech, as vice president of the association of Ibiza, and Ana Gordilla, as recently renewed president of the hotel association of San Antoni Bahía are part of the governing body Juan Manuel Costa Escanellas Paya, as president of Formentera, Vicente Torres Planells as president of Santa Eulària. They are accompanied by María Costa as president of Ibiza, José Luis Benítezof Palladium Hotel Group, Pedro Matutes Barcelóof Sirenis, the organizer of cycling competitions Juanjo Planells and the president of the ATEIF and director of the Royal Plaza Hotel, Eduardo Manero.