Alex Trelinski
A controversial tourist tax has been approved by the Valencian parliament permitting local councils across the region to impose a levy on accommodation.
The tax will vary between €2 per night for a hotel room through to €0.50 for a campsite stay.
Tourist apartments and cruise ships also come under the scope of the tax.
The new levy will not come into force until 2024 and will be enacted exactly a year after its details are published in the Valencian Official Gazette.
Almost every authority including Alicante, Benidorm, and Torrevieja have said they will not enforce it after the plan was watered down from being a region-wide law into a voluntary tax for each municipality.
It appears that only Valencia City is keen on implementing the charge.
The tourist tax has long been a source of disagreement between the socialists in Valencia led by president Ximo Puig and his two left-wing coalition partners-Compromis and Unidas Podemos- who were very keen on introducing the levy.
Opposition parties led by the Partido Popular have promised to scrap the measure if they win next year’s regional elections.
Despite the fact that hardly anybody will introduce the tax, the Hosbec hoteliers association says it may launch a legal challenge on the grounds that no changes have been made to local Treasury Laws to implement it.
A Hosbec spokesperson said: “This is an untimely tax that comes after tourism suffered during the Covid pandemic and now we have inflation pushing up costs for goods and services.”
The organisation warned the Valencia region would lose its competitiveness to areas like Andalucia, Murcia, and the Canary Islands who don’t have a tourist tax.
READ MORE:
- Angry business leaders rebel against ‘unacceptable’ tourist tax plans for Costa Blanca and Valencia areas of Spain
- Debate rages in Spain’s Valencia region over introduction of tourist tax
