The Majorcan tourist group Avoris Corporación Empresarial has been made with all the lots of the trips of the Institute for the Elderly and Social Services (Imserso) for the 2023-24 season, according to the minutes of the Contracting Table of the contest called by the body of the Ministry of Social Affairs. The other three consortiums that bid for these trips for pensioners —Mundiplan, Seniorplan 2.0 and Soltour— have been excluded and it will be the first time that a single company carries out all the hiring.
Social Tourism, the offer integrated by Avoris in association with Halcón Viajes, has obtained the highest score in the three lots: 94.24 points for lot 1 of the Peninsular Coast; 100 points for lot 2 of Tourism of the Insular Coast (Baleares and Canary Islands), and 97.82 points in lot 3 of Tourism of Getaways and European Origin.
The contest has been surrounded by controversy. At the beginning of this week, the decision to exclude Mundiplan (made up of Iberia, Alsa and IAG7) from lot 3 was leaked, due to technical deficiencies in the special cultural circuits and for failing to meet the minimum number of places provided. Seniorplan 2.0 (Senior Plan, Nautalia and Autocares Vera) was also excluded from lot 1, for not justifying the number of places offered.
Now, after knowing the result, Soltour and its partner Guest Incoming have decided to present an allegation of an urgent nature —a step prior to the formal appeal— to the award, considering that in lot 1, in which it has obtained 89.43 points, its The proposal must be the winner if two of the quality criteria of the contest are duly taken into account, with whose evaluation they disagree. The CEO of Soltour Travel Partners, Tomeu Bennasar, has defended that his proposal “is the best, since it will mean savings of 3.9 million euros to the taxpayer during this period, that is, 1.3 million a year” . This saving that the taxpayer would receive would not affect the income of the hotels, according to the CEO of Guest Incoming, Omar Spezie. For its part, Mundiplan has stated that it will study the award certificate in view of filing an appeal.
sale delay
In the event that any of the consortia files a firm appeal against the resolution of the Imserso, all the marketing and sales deadlines for the vacation program for the elderly would be delayed, as has already happened in other editions. With this award, the traditional duopoly of travel for the elderly is broken by leaving Mundiplan out of the cast, which last season took over the lots on the coast, both on the peninsula and on the island.
Imserso’s decision to prohibit excessively low offers meant that there was maximum equality between the four bidders in the first part of the contest, which measures economic offers, and whose weight is 38%. In lot 1, Mundiplan and Soltour submitted the cheapest proposals, thus starting with a slight advantage over Turismo Social and the Nautalia UTE. In number 2, the offers from Turismo Social and Mundiplan, the only applicants, were practically identical. And finally, at number 3, Nautalia and Turismo Social surpassed Mundiplan.
With this resolution, Turismo Social will soon sign the contract for one year (until August 31, 2024), with the option of a maximum of two extensions for the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 seasons, which are usually executed if not notable unforeseen events arise.
Valued at 842.9 million euros and with a total amount of 71.7 million grants, it is a crucial program for the interests of the tourism industry for the low season. In addition, it will have 886,269 trips in the coming seasons, compared to the initial 816,029 this year. Lot 1, on the peninsular coast, accounts for half with 443,887 vacancies. It is followed by lot 2, on the island coast, with 230,039, of which 120,000 correspond to the Balearic Islands, while number 3, for getaway tourism and European origin, will add 212,343.
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