Barcelona's tourist tax, both in luxury establishments and in the most modest ones, and especially due to the announced increase for cruise passengers passing through and in apartments, consolidates the city as one of the European cities that charges the most to its visitors. in taxes. With a rate that next year will range between 4.25 and 7 euros, Barcelona is at the level of Rome, Brussels and Amsterdam (where tourists who arrive by cruise ship and do not spend the night pay eight euros) and above the average from the rest of the cities.
The difference in Barcelona lies not so much in the amount paid by tourists who stay in five-star hotels – starting next April they will pay 6.75 euros per person per night – but in the four-star hotels, which They will charge 4.95 euros per night starting next spring, and the rest of the establishments, whose amount per tourist will be 4.25 euros. In Rome, the tax is slightly lower in three-star (4 euros per night) and four-star (6 euros) establishments, but five-star hotels charge 7 euros and up to 10 in Rome in high season.
In recent years, each country and each city has adopted different formulas to apply its tourism tax, a measure intended to cushion the so-called “externalities” caused by mass tourism. Thus, in some countries it has been implemented as a municipal tax and in others as a regional tax.
In Amsterdam, for example, it was agreed to apply a common rate to all establishments of 3 euros per night, to which 7% of the total room rate is added. In Germany, the cities of Berlin and Cologne have established a fee that corresponds to 5% of the hotel bill, while in Prague it is 0.5% of the bill. In other cities, such as Hamburg, the amount is 0.5 euros for establishments up to 50 euros per night and 4 euros in establishments over 200 euros. The range in Milan ranges between 3 and 5 euros and in Switzerland the average tourist tax does not reach 3 euros, according to data managed by the Gremi d'Hotels of Barcelona. In Paris the maximum is 5 euros.
The situation in Barcelona is different. The municipal surcharge is added to the general rate established by the Generalitat, of which the city receives a part. This extra amount is currently 2.75 euros per night for all categories, but it will increase to 3.25 euros starting next April, as approved by the City Council and ratified this week by the head of the economic area, Jordi Valls, during the presentation of the municipal budget for next year.
Valls announced this increase and another unforeseen increase: the municipal surcharge of 4 euros (currently it is 2.75) for each of the cruise passengers who do not spend the night in the city, bringing the total rate to 7 euros. And another significant increase of 4 euros per night for the occupants of the tourist apartments.
In an interview in Betevé, Valls reiterated that the municipal government “is not going against tourism” but insisted “on the need to manage it” ensuring that “tourists will not stop coming because of the tax.” However, the increase for users of tourist apartments who, if this increase is applied, would go from 4.45 euros per night to 6.25 euros (50 cents less than the night in a five-star hotel) has outraged to the sector.
The Association of Tourist Apartments of Barcelona (Apartur) has criticized the increase proposed by the City Council and which places the rate of its accommodation above that of four-star hotels. “It is a measure contrary to progressivism,” said the president of Apartur, Enrique Alcántara, who has urged the City Council to pursue the “illegal offer” that does not pay taxes instead of putting “more obstacles” to a sector, that of apartments. legal entities, which claim to contribute more than 347 million euros to the public coffers per year.
