Ben Pawlowski
BARCELONA’S crusade against tourists shows no signs of slowing down after the city council agreed to hike visitor levies over the next four years.
The incremental rises of €1 per year mean tourists will have to pay €8 per person, per night by 2029 – double the current surcharge of €4.
The levy is in addition to the Catalan tourist tax, a separate charge that varies depending on accommodation and length of stay.
That demand is also set to rise, with visitors staying in swanky five-star hotels forced to fork out up to €7 per night.
In total, that means a single tourist visiting the Catalan capital could have to cough up €15 for each night of their stay – with all the cash heading into the council’s coffers.
The local leader for the left-wing, pro-independence ERC, Elisenda Alamany sought to defend the tax hike, stating: “The more tourists pay, the less residents will have to.”
“Managing tourism is common sense in this city,” she added.
READ MORE: Spanish mayors voice support for tourist tax in their cities
The proposal was also backed by the socialist PSOE, but opposed by councillors from the conservative Partido Popular (PP) and far-right Vox.
Junts per Catalunya, the pro-independence party led by former Catalan president and fugitive from Spanish justice, Carles Puigdemont, abstained on the issue.
Barcelona City Council collected €106.5 million from tourist taxes in 2024, with money funnelled back into local projects including public-space improvements, tourist flow management, cleaning, street lighting, public transport and security.
The levy is the third-largest revenue source for the city council after property tax and capital gains tax.
Earlier this year, politicians from the ruling socialists agreed to spend at least 25% of revenue gained from the Catalan tourist tax on housing policies in an effort to alleviate the region’s accommodation shortage.
Some locals believe lodgings used by tourists should be repurposed for city residents, many of whom have been driven out of the city centre and towards the suburbs as rental prices skyrocket.
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“The more tourists pay, the less residents will have to.”
Time of course will tell, but I will bet a few bob that Catalan residents taxes don’t go down!
And of course that presuposes that the number of tourists stay at today’s levels, but the whole idea of the tax is to discourage tourism! Are we going to witness a miracle over the next 4 years?