The Balearic government will apply a tourist tax in 2016 “with or without the help of the state” because it is “absolutely necessary.” So says vice-president and minister for tourism, Biel Barceló, in referring to whether or not the state will permit the charging of the tax at ports and airports and in arguing that the tax is necessary to improve the competitiveness of the Balearics and because it is a social demand by the citizenship, which had “made possible a political change” in the Balearics at the elections in May.
Barceló, addressing a parliamentary hearing in which he was explaining his programme for government, said that he was convinced that a good part of the tourism industry was itself convinced of the need for the tax and for its use for reinvestment in the islands.
Barceló added that the government was seeking “maximum consensus” for establishing the tax, for which it has therefore started discussions with various sectors of the tourism industry.
The minister went on to say that tourists will help to conserve the “paradise” that is the Balearic archipelago and that the revenue from the tax will be reinvested in the improvement of tourist resorts, environmental conservation, improving heritage and developing policies of innovation.