Alex Trelinski
A GRAN Canaria tourist resort has become the first municipality in Spain to introduce a tourist tax.
Mogan approved the tax at a full council meeting this month and it will be applied from January.
Tourist taxes are charged on overnight stays in the Balearic Islands and Catalunya regions.
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Since municipalities do not have have the power to impose overnight stay taxes, the Mogan tax will be imposed as a charge for local services.
That means that the owners of hotels and holiday homes must pay the tax to the town hall every six months in April and October.
The fee will be set at €0.15 per person per day for those staying at a tourist establishment.
The amounts involved are therefore fairly minimal and could hardly be described as ‘harsh’- a description used by some UK tabloid newspapers.
The council says that a family of four staying for a week will pay a total of €4.20, in other words €1.05 per person.
The figure is subject to an annual review, depending on the costs derived from tourist activity foreseen in the council’s budget.
The money made will be pumped into local tourism and infrastructure.
It will be ring-fenced to finance tourist activities and services as well as promoting tourism in Mogan.
An estimated 44% of Mogan’s population are tourists and the council expects to make €8.9 million per annum from the new levy.
