The tourist tax is not part of the plans of the Minister of Tourism, Arturo Bernalwhich yesterday once again ruled out its launch in the region. It doesn’t matter that more and more mayors are asking for it. Jose Luis SanzMayor of Seville, is among those in favor of imposing a tax on tourists. A measure in which he finds support in Francisco de la TorreMayor of Malaga, who has also called for a tax on travellers to finance social rentals. Tourist cities want an incentive to be able to finance the oversized services linked to welcoming thousands of tourists.
However, the Andalusian tourism official does not consider this feasible. “It is not a solution anywhere, because the experience so far with the tax in all the cities where it has been imposed, both in Spain and abroad, has not solved either the problem of financing or the concentration of tourists,” said the councilor at the inauguration of the Seatrade Cruise Med in Malaga, a fair specialized in cruise tourism.
He stressed that it is not possible to charge tourists for access to Andalusian cities and that “therefore, we will have to look for other tools” to finance municipalities for the overload suffered by public services, water networks or mobility infrastructures.
Local Treasury Law
Councilor Bernal added that in terms of applying a tax tool, this can only be resolved since the only tax platform that allows imposing this type of rate is the Local Treasury Law.
“It is a state law and it is the state that must modify taxes and impose new taxes based on this regulation,” concluded Bernal, who shares some voices in his party, such as the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, stressing that in the event that the solution to overcrowding is a tourist tax, it should be the government of Pedro Sánchez himself who articulate a legal framework to be able to start it.
The Ministry of Tourism is betting, instead of charging for stops in Andalusia, on a debate with “calm and rigor” and excludes “any rapid action” in this matter without assessing the risks for the tourist destination.
“At the time we proposed to the Local observatory for sustainable development in Andalusia, through the Andalusian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces and also the Andalusian Business Confederation, precisely, to analyze what were the sources of these problems and how to solve them,” said Arturo Bernal.
