Barcelona mayor suggests increasing tourism tax on cruise ships surpassing €4

Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni defends that those cruise ship passengers spending less than 12 hours in the Catalan capital to pay more than the current €4 tourism tax.

Authorities already have "some studies" regarding what price these travelers should have to pay "after intensively using the public space," he told Spanish newspaper El País in an interview.

The mayor also said that they would ask the Catalan parliament not to limit the maximum price of the tax, as they want these tourists to "have an extraordinary tax," as they visit the city for very few hours without having a huge financial impact, but affecting other services.

Officials have taken this decision "as it is the activity that has a more intensive use of public space, especially in the Old Quarter and the city's seaside," and for visitors to pay for its use, "and not Barcelona residents with their taxes," he told El País.

Around 1.5 million cruise ship passengers would be impacted, as up to 83% of the vessels have Barcelona as their base port, meaning they spend more than 12 hours.

Barcelona makes "a huge investment to keep the public space proper" to welcome these visitors, Collboni said.

Collboni is not pushing for these visitors to not come into the city, but "to pay what it costs to be here," and with the tax to help finance the different "investments" undergone in 15 different spaces of the city.

"What we do not want," Collboni added, "is a tourism that clashes with living in the city, as it goes against a right to a home and pushes away middle-class youngsters."

In May, the city council approved increasing the tourist tax to €4, the maximum allowed. Thus, the city will be able to collect up to €115 million, up from the current €95 million.

There is no plan for a potential cruise ship reduction, as he said back in May when he suggested they would do "whatever is necessary."