Barcelona’s government, in an effort to reduce the flow of tourists and ensure affordable housing for locals, has raised the tax on tourists, who will now pay up to 15 euros per night in the city in addition to other costs, writes the news agency Reuters.
The Catalan regional government has faced increasingly loud protests from local residents about the huge number of tourists, which has created a large number of short-term rental housing and increased rental prices.
The regional parliament has approved a law that will double the “accommodation tax” applied to tourists to 12.5 euros per night (instead of the previous 6.25 euros). It is also planned to ban all short-term rental housing by 2028. Hotel guests will pay between 10 and 15 euros per night extra from April (up from five to seven and a half euros), depending on the hotel category. This means that a couple could spend two nights in a four-star hotel in Barcelona on average by 45.60 euros.
Guests at five-star hotels will pay up to 15 euros per night, while cruise ship passengers will still pay six euros.
The law states that a quarter of the revenue will go to help the city’s housing crisis.
A 33-year-old nurse from Italy told Reuters that Barcelona was already expensive and she was unlikely to return. She added that she did not consider the tax increase fair, as the city already charges tourists for sightseeing and they spend money in shops.
One local resident said the higher tax would be unlikely to solve the housing affordability crisis, but it still seemed justified.
Hoteliers are worried that the tax hike will scare away most of the 15.8 million tourists who visit Barcelona each year. The city is the fourth most popular conference destination in the world, and visitors will also have to pay the tourist tax. Manel Casals, general director of the Barcelona hotel owners’ group, said that a proposal to gradually increase the tax so that its impact could be assessed had been ignored. He added that one day the goose that lays the golden eggs will be killed.
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