Alex Trelinski
THE Valencian government wants to introduce a tourist tax levied on nightly stays in accommodation with a proposed 2023 start date.
That’s despite the battering suffered by the tourist sector in areas like the Costa Blanca during the coronavirus pandemic.
The left-of-centre ruling coalition parties, namely the Valencian socialists, Compromis, and Unides Podem have reached a deal between themselves to draw up a bill for the measure before the end of March 2022.
The new tax proposal backs away from region-wide mandatory imposition.
It plans to give individual municipalities the flexibility to charge a levy on overnight stays in hotel rooms and other accommodation.
The idea of the tax has been a source of disagreement between the socialists in Valencia led by president Ximo Puig and his left-wing coalition partners who have been very keen on the idea for some time.
A suggested rate is somewhere between €0.5 and €2 per night but councils will have flexibility to charge even more.
Alicante’s Tourism councillor, Mari Carmen Sanchez, says that the city will ‘not have a tourist tax’.
“It seems incredible that in the situation in which we are in with the pandemic hitting citizens again, especially in the tourism sector, they decide to approve the tourist tax,” Carmen Sanchez commented.
“It is a burden for the sector that leaves us at a clear competitive disadvantage compared to other similar destinations across the country,” she added.
A consultative process involving the tourism sector and councils will take place in January and February.
The Valencian government will then publish a bill in late March and if it is approved by the regional parliament, it will become law a year later.
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