Shorouk Express
Holidaymakers in Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia will soon have to pay double as much in tourist taxes as they already do, with higher nightly rates in particular for those staying in Barcelona.
That’s according to an agreement between the Catalan government and the parliamentary group Comuns, as announced on Thursday by the latter’s spokesperson David Cid on Cadena Ser radio station.
The possibility of doubling the rate will mean that holidaymakers staying at 5-star and luxury hotels in the Catalan capital will pay a tourist tax of at least €7 per night rather than €3.50, while those in 4-star hotels will soon have to spend an additional €3.40.
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Guests staying at tourist accommodation such as Airbnbs in Barcelona will be charged €4.50 as part of the new levy.
Passengers on board cruise ships docked at Barcelona’s port for more than 24 hours will soon pay a tax of €6; and those on cruises that stay for more than 24 hours can expect tourists taxes of €4 per night.
Those staying at other accommodation, be it hostels or guesthouses or similar, will see the daily tourist tax go from €1 to €2.
It’s worth noting that Barcelona city already applies its own municipal surcharge of €4 per night, and that the City Council will also have the right to double this tourist tax up to €8 per night.
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So if you add the regional and city tourist taxes together, each guest at a 5-star or luxury hotel in Barcelona could pay an additional €15 per night. If this went ahead, it would in effect mean that Barcelona would almost quadruple its tourist tax in some cases.
Outside Barcelona, the doubled tourist tax will be slightly lower. Five-star and luxury hotels will charge €6 in tourist taxes per night, 4-star hotels €2.40, tourist accommodation owners €2, and other establishments €1.20.
The cruise ship tourist taxes will be the same across the whole of Catalonia, at the same rates as Barcelona.
However, all municipalities across Catalonia have now also been given the go-ahead to charge their own municipal tourist taxes, whereas up to now it was just Barcelona.
Therefore, the tourist taxes could be even higher everywhere across the northeastern region, from Tarragona to Sitges.
Why the tourist tax increase?
Cid has argued that the tax levy hike does not represent “any limit” to tourism in the context of Catalonia’s record numbers of visitors, and that the measure is in line with those of other European cities such as Amsterdam or Rome.
It’s expected that 25 percent of the revenue generated by the new tourist taxes will be allocated to housing access policies.
“I think that many Catalans are having a very hard time,” Cid argued.
READ MORE: ‘It’s changed our lives’ – Barcelona turns against ‘uncontrolled’ tourism
“And I think that the tourists who visit us can make a little more effort so that we have more resources, for example, to allocate them to what is today the main problem of the country – access to housing.”
The agreement is set to be ratified on Thursday February 27th by Catalonia’s regional minister for Economy and Finance Alícia Romero and the leader of Comuns in the Catalan Parliament, Jéssica Albiach.
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As could be expected, those with business interests in the region’s tourism industry are not happy with the news.
Catalonia’s Confederation of Hotel and Restaurant Businesses (Confecat) has issued a statement expressing its opposition to the new tourist tax, referring to it as “continued fiscal suffocation” and that the sector “is not willing to continue being the constant source of financing for the administrations”.
READ ALSO: Why is mass tourism such a problem in Spain but not in France?
They claim “this measure threatens to destroy the competitiveness of a business network that is key to economic and social development” of the region which in 2024 received 19.9 million international tourists.
For its part, the Barcelona Hotel Association has argued that “if this measure is applied, Barcelona would become the European city with the highest tourist tax in all hotel categories, above cities such as Paris and Rome (whose average hotel prices are higher than those of Barcelona)”.
In anticipation of a backlash from the hotel and hospitality sector, Cid stressed that this is “a tax that is not paid by hoteliers, but by tourists”, and increasing it now makes perfect sense since Catalonia is recording “record numbers of tourists and revenue”.
“A person who comes to the city of Barcelona and pays between €300 and €400 for a night in a hotel can easily pay €7 more per night,” Cid argued.
READ ALSO: Are Spain’s tourist taxes such a big deal?
Overtourism has been a problem in Barcelona for over a decade, whereas in other holiday hotspots in Spain the knock-on effects of mass tourism have started to be felt more recently.
Several protests took place in the Catalan capital in 2024, most headline-grabbing of all one where holidaymakers on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas boulevard had water splattered on them by a small group of demonstrators wielding water pistols.
Just like in many other popular cities in Spain, the impact of tourism, international popularity and gentrification on Barcelona’s housing and rental market have been notable.
READ ALSO: Barcelona eyes banning non-residents in Spain from buying homes
Barcelona residents are increasingly struggling to find accommodation and make ends meet, with the sense that they are second-class citizens in their own city.
