‘Barcelona will be more expensive than Paris’: Business anger at tourist tax hike ...Middle East

MADRID – Spanish businesses have hit back after Catalonia authorities announced that they would double tourist taxes this year, making it one of the highest rates in Europe in the latest measure designed to combat overtourism.

Spain is struggling to balance protecting its booming tourist industry, which accounts for about 12 per cent of GDP,  and dealing with a growing housing crisis that critics say is caused by the rise of tourist flats in major cities like Barcelona, Madrid and Malaga.

Tourists were squirted with water pistols by protesters in Barcelona last July who claim that tourist flats were denying local people affordable housing.

Catalonia’s coalition left-wing authority will put 25 per cent of the cash raised from higher tourist taxes towards providing social housing.

Guests in five-star hotels in Barcelona will see the daily tourist charge rise from €3.50 (£2.90) to €7 (£5.80). For four-star hotel guests, the tax will increase from €1.70 (£1.40) to €3.40 (£2.80). Tourist flats will charge holidaymakers €4.40 (£3.60) per day, up from €2.25 ((£1.90).

The tax for cruise passengers who spend less than 24 hours in the city will rise from €3 (£2.50) to €6 (£5).

Outside the city, the charges will increase from €1.20 (£1) to €6 (£5) per day depending on the quality of the accommodation.  A 10 per cent VAT charge will be added to the tax.

In 2023, Catalonia raised €90m (£74m) from the tourist tax but the latest increase in the charge will bring in €200m (£165m) this year for regional government coffers.

Some 15.4 million people visited Barcelona last year, according to the Barcelona Tourism Observatory, a fall of 0.2 per cent compared with 2023.

David Cid, a spokesman for the far-left Comuns party, which supports the Socialist regional government, said the tourist tax hike would not deter tourists.

“Many Catalans are having a very tough time and I think that the tourists who visit us can make a small additional effort so that we have more resources, for example, to allocate to housing, which today is the main problem in Catalonia,” Mr Cid told Ser radio station.

“A person who comes to Barcelona and pays between €300 (£250) and €400 (£330) for a hotel night can perfectly pay seven euros more.”

However, business organisations and hotel operators insisted that the tax hike would make Barcelona one of the most expensive cities in Europe and punish tourist businesses.

'Cruises are not the problem' - Barcelona's businesses hit back at tourist crackdown

The Barcelona Hotels Guild said in a statement: “If this measure is applied, Barcelona will become one of the cities in Europe with the highest tourist tax in all hotel categories, above cities like Paris and Rome, whose average hotel prices are higher than those of Barcelona.”

The organisation said that if VAT were added to the tourist tax it would mean that five-star hotel guests would pay €12.10 (£10) per day and four-star hotel guests would pay €8.14 (£6.70).

Paris charges five-star hotel guests €11.38 (£9.40) per day in tourist tax. In Rome, the top daily tourist tax is €7 (£5.80).

The Hotel and Restaurant Business Confederation of Catalonia (Confecat) said that it “completely rejects this measure and condemns the continued fiscal asphyxiation to which the tourist accommodation sector in Catalonia is subjected”.

It added that it was “not willing to continue being a constant source of funding for [local] administrations”.

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