Spanish destination set to raise daily fee ‘substantially’ for millions of tourists
BRITS heading to Spain could soon face a huge hike in their holiday costs.
The mayor of Barcelona has revealed plans to “substantially” raise the tourist tax for day visitors.
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This will only apply to cruise tourists who visit the city for less than 12 hours.
However, the decision comes because of the visits providing “no benefit” to the public spaces.
The current cruise tax for passengers is €7 (£6), but the new price has not been revealed.
Jaume Collboni, the city’s mayor, said: “We’re going to propose substantially increasing the tax for cruise passengers.
“In the case of stopover passengers, there’s intensive use of public space without any benefit. It needs to be respectful.”
Cruise ships have already been banned in Barcelona’s central port, which was introduced last year.
Passengers now have to arrive at Moll d’Adossant pier, which is much further from the city centre.
This means taking shuttle buses to the centre of Barcelona, rather than the ten-minute walk before.
As many as 12million tourists visit Barcelona a year, with two million of those from cruise ships.
Lluis Salvado, president of the Port of Barcelona, said : “The closure of the Barcelona northern docks for cruise operations is a new step to comply with the agreement signed in 2018 with the Barcelona municipal government to eliminate the negative impact that this activity could produce for citizens.”
And the deputy major of Janet Sanz previously said they were looking at capping the number of day visitors from cruise ships.
She previously said: “You will be walking and all of a sudden there’s this mass of people who appear together in the street.
“They don’t consume anything and they don’t have an economic impact – they just wander for four or five hours and leave.”
The cap could see daily cruise ships reduced to just three a day, halving the monthly passenger numbers from 400,000 to 200,000.
Other parts of Spain are also cracking down on cruise passenger numbers.
Majorca will only allow three cruise ships at Palma port a day for the next two years.
And Lanzarote hopes to limit cruise passengers as well.
What is the Spanish tourist tax?
The majority of Spain is tourist tax free but there are some areas where you will need to pay.
Some of the most popular areas of Spain now charge a fee for tourists to help pay for infrastructure, resources and amenities.
Tourist tax in Spain tends to be charged per person per night.
This means you need to consider how much extra money you will need to have for your holiday.
Under 16s tend to be exempt from the tax.
You will need to pay a tourist tax when you arrive for your holiday to the Balearic Islands.
This includes Majorca, Menorca, Formentera and Ibiza, and ranges from €1-€4 depending on where you are staying.
The Barcelona tourist tax also ranges from €2.70 to €4.
Barcelona is also to up the daily tourist tax for standard tourists, although is a much smaller €4 (up from €3.25).
Still want to visit Spain? Here is how to save money and avoid the tourist traps, according to one guy who goes eight times a year.