The President of the Balearics, Marga Prohens, said on Tuesday that, considering the hotel sector recently stated that “there was room to raise prices”, there should also be room to increase the tourist tax in the summer in order to contain the flow of visitors. The tax is going to be increased during the months of June, July and August.
In response to questions from opposition party in the plenary session of the Parliament, the President stressed that “there is room for an increase”, but avoided specifying to what extent the tax will be increased because she will try to ensure that the increase is the result of an agreement at the roundtables she has convened to discuss measures against tourism overcrowding.
She pointed out that she had also announced that a specific tax deduction would compensate Balearic residents for paying the tax. Prohens criticised the left for not exempting residents from paying the eco-tax when it was able to do so during the last two terms of office, and also for using the proceeds of the tax for measures unrelated to tourism and environmental protection. “Now the tax is for the purposes of the municipality,” she remarked.
The leader of Més per Mallorca, Lluís Apesteguia, took the president to task over her lack of definition regarding the amount by which the tourist tax will rise, rejecting the reduction in December, January and February announced and defended the fact that it should rise by 100% throughout the year.
Cristina Gómez, the deputy for Unidas Podemos, maintained that Prohens “has clearly rolled back” after the hoteliers’ criticisms, and pointed out that the eco-tax was not designed to regulate tourist flows.
In the same vein, the Socialist MP Marc Pons expressed himself in a question addressed to the Minister of Economy, Toni Costa, to whom he asked how much the tax should be raised if hotel prices increase every year by around 10% and the establishments continue to be full in high season. Costa asked Pons to clarify whether he has any studies that prove that the sustainable tourism tax does not serve to regulate the tourism slack.