Ben Pawlowski
TOURISTS visiting Barcelona are set to be hit by a rise in charges after the city council agreed to increase visitor levies by over 20%.
The Catalan capital, which receives almost 10 million visitors annually, will increase its tourist tax from €3.25 to €4 a night in a move that is expected to generate an additional €20 million in revenues.
Some councillors are even calling on the Catalan government and regional parliament to remove the current cap on tourist taxes entirely so the levy can be elevated further.
Currently, Barcelona collects €95 million annually from the tourist tax, but spends €142 million on tourist expenses, including additional transport, security and cleaning.
The Deputy Mayor for Economy, Tax and Tourism, Jordi Valls, expects the new surcharge to come into force in October.
The proposal is supported by all parties present in the city council bar the conservative Partido Popular (PP) and far-right Vox.
The announcement comes as Barcelona emerges as a key battleground for anti-tourist activism which has swamped Spain over the last year.
Last week, mayor Jaume Collboni announced that the city would be revoking all licenses for the city’s 10,000-plus tourist apartments, a move that landlords branded as ‘populist’ and ‘destined to fail’.
The city council hopes the move will drive companies such as Airbnb out of the city, opening up homes which can be used as social housing in order to alleviate an acute property crisis which has driven thousands of locals out of the city centre and towards the suburbs and nearby towns.
