Barcelona’s tourist tax, both in high-end establishments and the most modest ones, and above all due to the announced increase in passing cruise passengers and in apartments, consolidates the city as one of the European cities that collects the most from its visitors in taxes. With a rate that next year will range between 4.25 and 7 euros, Barcelona is at the level of Brussels, Rome and Amsterdam (where tourists who arrive by cruise and do not stay overnight pay eight euros) and above the average of the other cities.
The difference in Barcelona lies not so much in the amount paid by tourists who stay in five-star hotels – from April they will pay 6.75 euros per person per night – but in four-star hotels, which they will charge 4.95 euros per night from the spring, and the rest of the establishments, whose amount per tourist will be 4.25 euros. In Rome, the tax is slightly lower for three-star establishments (4 euros per night) and four-star establishments (6 euros), but five-star hotels charge 7 euros and up to 10 euros in high season.
In recent years, each country and each city has adopted different formulas to apply its tourist 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 it has been chosen to establish it 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 of up to 50 euros per night and 4 euros in establishments of more than 200 euros. In Milan it ranges between 3 and 5 euros and in Switzerland the average tourist tax does not reach 3 euros, according to data from the Barcelona Hotel Association. In Paris the maximum is 5 euros.
The case of Barcelona is different. The municipal surcharge is added to the general rate established by the Generalitat, of which the city receives a portion. This extra amount is currently 2.75 euros per night for all categories, but will increase to 3.25 euros from 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 larger one not foreseen: the municipal surcharge of 4 euros (currently 2.75) for each of the cruise passengers who do not spend the night in the city, with which the total rate will rise to 7 euros And another significant increase of 4 euros per night for the occupants of tourist apartments.
In an interview with Betevé, Valls reiterated that the municipal government “is not against tourism”, but insisted “on the need to manage it” and assured that “tourists will not stop coming because of the tax”. However, the increase for users of tourist apartments, which if applied would go from 4.45 euros per night to 6.25 euros (50 cents less than a night in a five-star hotel), has outraged the sector.
The Barcelona Tourist Apartments Association (Apartur) has criticized the increase proposed by the City Council, which places the rate for 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 legal apartments, which claim to contribute more than 347 million euros to public coffers a year.
