While the Balearic political situation has yet to be settled following last Sunday’s election results which put the Partido Popular in the driving seat, the response from the British media has been positive with regard to the fact that the PP have made it clear that they have no intention of increasing the tourist tax, which members of the outgoing left-wing coalition wanted to raise by as much as 60 percent.
The Sun carried the headline “POCKET MONEY Major holiday win for Brits going to Majorca as hated surcharge won’t go up this year". And continued: "BRITS heading to Majorca this summer will be relieved to find out that the dreaded tourist tax will not increase this year. The sun-soaked Balearic Island introduced the tax in 2016 to assist in environment conservation and make tourism more sustainable, but it’s been a pain for many families.”
Nevertheless, the tax will remain, but any talk of an increase in the rates will now cease.
The PP have also made clear that they intend using the revenue for what they say tourists believed it was for - the environment and modernisation of tourism infrastructure.
There is likely, therefore, to be an amendment to the 2016 sustainable tourism tax legislation in order to specify these purposes. On the other hand, VOX want to scrap it.