Barcelona to raise tourist tax to €4 per night
Provisional measures brought in for summer will add €20 million to city's coffers annually
The Barcelona City Council has provisionally approved raising the tourist tax for visitors to the city from €3.25 to €4.
This price is paid per person per night, and is in addition to a Catalan tourist tax which varies according to the type of accommodation and stay.
The increase in the surcharge is expected to bring in an mean an additional €20 million more per year to the city.
While waiting for the council to definitively approve the increase after the summer, a majority of elected councilors voted in favor of provisional approval, thanks to votes from the Socialists, Junts, BComú and Esquerra Republicana.
Deputy mayor for economy, finance, and tourism in the local government, Jordi Valls, asked the Catalan executive to remove the legal barrier that currently limits the municipal surcharge.
Valls pointed out that "the tourist is a temporary citizen who makes intensive use of public services, and therefore with this contribution, they must finance cleaning, security, lighting, or public transport and help maintain the quality of services."
These additional resources will also be used to finance the tourism management plan which tagets 16 specific areas of the city that frequently becomes oversatured.
Tourist tax rates
The increase in the tourist tax rate will apply to all visitors to the city, staying overnight in all types of establishments, and will be set at €4 per person per night.
On top of that, visitors also pay a Catalan tourist tax, which varies depending on the type of accommodation.
Those staying in a 5-star hotel will pay an extra €3.50 per night, meaning their new total of tourist taxes will be €7.50 per night.
Those staying in a 4-star hotel pay €1.70 to the Catalan tourist tax, meaning a combined €5.70 in all.
Visitors sleeping in an Airbnb or any other apartment rented out for tourist use pay €2.25 per person per night, meaning their new total will be €6.25.
Cruise ship passengers entering the city to stay for more than 12 hours will have to pay €2 to the Catalan tourist tax, meaning €6 in total, while those staying in the city for less than 12 hours will pay an additional €1 to the executive's coffers, meaning a total of €7.