The regional government has now published the draft of its sustainable tourism tax law in the Official Bulletin, something designed to conserve the land and the landscape and to be invested in a better tourism based on quality and sustainability.
The tax will be of a purpose-oriented character and be applied to tourist accommodation, to properties that are commercialised for tourist resasons and to cruise ships.
The draft will be up for public consideration for 15 days, during which time any citizen or organisation can have their say and can present observations. The government will take these into account before approving the law. This will go before parliament with the aim of having generated the maximum consensus and social debate as possible in order that the law is adapted to the real needs of the citizenship.
The publication of the draft bill is a further step in an open process for developing the rules surrounding the new tax and is part of the public debate that the government started with the tourism sector, with social and economic bodies, with the island councils, with representatives of parliamentary groups and with society at large in order to define the tax and to establish means of bringing about a sustainable tourism model from the points of view of the environment, the economy and society.
The text of the draft has various exemptions. Apart from under-14s, who will not be liable for the tax, there will be exemptions for stays that are caused because of “force majeure” and for stays by tourist establishment staff. Also exempt will be patients and those accompanying them if they have to travel between the islands to receive medical treatment as well as visitors on subsidised social vacation programmes, such as Imserso.
A distinction is to be made between high and low season. During the latter, there will be a 50% reduction in order to promote a lengthening of the tourism season. There will also be a distinction between categories of accommodation. Tourists in higher standard accommodation will pay more. The amount will vary from a minimum of 25 cents (for hostels, refuges and pensions in low season) to a maximum of two euros (5-star hotels and tourist apartments with four keys or four key superior in the high season). Cruise-ship passengers will have to pay one euro in high season and 50 cents in low season.
As an example, a family of two adults and two children under the age of 14 which stays in a 3-star hotel for eight nights (an average stay) during high season will pay a total 16 euros. This, based on average tourist spend, will represent 0.9% of total holiday cost. A family with a similar make-up in a 4-star hotel will pay 25 euros, or 1.4% of total cost.
The draft foresees the creation of a Commission for the Promotion of Sustainable Tourism, made up of representatives from government institutions, business and elsewhere, that will evaluate projects to be invested in by revenue raised by the tax. These will be for the protection and conservation of the environment, for the improvement of the tourism sector oriented towards following a sustainable model, to the recuperation of historical and cultural patrimony, to projects of research and innovation related to tourism and to economic diversification, and to improve training and quality of jobs in the tourism sector.
The government will continue speaking with the tourism sector and other bodies in order to improve the text of the draft. Once observations have been made, over the following weeks the cabinet will approve the draft before sending it to the parliament.