Two specific issues mean that tourism has gained a leading role in the electoral campaign of the Valencian regional and municipal elections, greater than it had been in previous calls. On the one hand, the approval last December in the Corts of a tourist tax that the city councils must decide if they apply; on the other, the crisis in the housing market due to the high prices, both for sale and for rent, that have reached the apartments in the cities and neighborhoods with the greatest demand, a phenomenon that some associate with the rise of private vacation rentals.
Regarding the rate, three positions can be distinguished. In the first place, of course, the formations that defended and conditioned their support for the budgets of the Generalitat Valenciana, Compromís and Podem, for its approval in the Corts, advocate applying it. For their part, PP, Ciudadanos and Vox are contrary and announce that they will not apply it in the municipalities that they govern and, if the Consell depends on them, they will repeal the rule, considering that it would make the sector less competitive, something delicate at a time of difficulties that are still dragging on after the pandemic.
In an intermediate position is the PSPV. Ximo Puig has reiterated that he is not so much opposed to the idea as to the opportunity to apply it in the current situation. And his candidates in some of the most touristic municipalities, such as Ana Barceló in Alicante, are in favor of not doing it. In fact, the provincial secretary of the Alicante socialists, Alejandro Soler, exposed after a meeting with the hotel management the opposite opinion of his party, because “it can generate harmful effects in the sector. We have to help companies that have not yet overcome the effects of the covid crisis and that are immersed in a complex economic situation derived from inflation”.
However, his partner Sandra Gómez, socialist candidate for mayor of Valencia, in an imaginative twist, promised to allocate the income that the tax generates between March 1 and 19 to the falleros, which he calculated at one million euros, giving so of course she is in favor of this collection procedure as long as the funds obtained are dedicated to the appropriate cause.
The other issue that has contributed to placing tourism in the forefront of the issues to be debated during the campaign is its relationship -which some believe to be close- with one of the star issues of the political moment: housing. Last Wednesday, the Law that changes the rules of the game, among other things, in the field of rent, completed its last parliamentary process in the Senate. Against the claim of the PSOE partners in the government, the new state regulation has not dealt with tourist rentals, but the debate is open at the regional and municipal levels, which are the ones that are disputing the 28M.
Above all, Valencia and Alicante are the cities most affected by an inflationary real estate market, and phenomena such as the gentrification of the historic center and some neighborhoods in the respective centers in which the supply of flats sold worldwide through platforms has multiplied. like AirBnb or Booking.
The mayor of the capital and Compromís candidate, Joan Ribó, is in favor of promoting "a plan to paralyze the new licenses for tourist apartments in saturated areas." His corporation partner and rival in the electoral race, the socialist Sandra Gómez, also in this matter ahead of his own party on the left: in the debate held by the SER network, he stated that "tourist apartments are artificially raising the price of housing", and in addition to proposing that Valencia "be the first city in Spain to apply an Airbnb rate that makes it as difficult as possible to transform a home into tourist accommodation", announced its intention to approve a general moratorium that prevents new licenses throughout the city.
This speech by Gómez coincides in general lines with the proposals of the leftist parties with which a municipal government should agree, and distances itself from the postulates, contrary to market intervention, of the right. The former Minister of Health and candidate in Alicante, Ana Barceló, also maintains a much more prudent discourse, in favor of fighting against illegal vacation rentals, but from the belief that Alicante has not yet reached its tourist ceiling and that there are other factors related to poor planning and a scarce supply of public housing, which have made the market more expensive.
In any case, when adopting measures, the decision on which areas are declared "stressed" in each municipality will be key, since it will be there where moratoriums or regulations are applied, such as the proposal that Podemos tried to include in the state Law and will now deal with to apply in the Community: limit the number of tourist rental places to 2% of the population of those areas. In other words, in an area of 10,000 inhabitants that has experienced sharp price increases, only 200 tourist rental spaces would be allowed.
