by Donald Wood
Last updated: 9:45 AM ET, Mon July 22, 2024
As part of the ongoing efforts to battle overtourism, city
officials in Barcelona announced that the tourist tax for cruise passengers
visiting the city for less than 12 hours would be “substantially” increased.
According to Sky
News, Barcelona Mayor Jaume
Collboni confirmed the tourism tax would increase but did not confirm how much
the price would jump. The current tax for stopover cruise passengers is
currently €7 ($7.60.)
“We are going to propose substantially increasing the tax for
stopover cruise passengers,” Collboni said. “In the case of stopover cruise
passengers (less than 12 hours) there is intensive use of public space without
any benefit for the city and a feeling of occupation and saturation.”
“We want to have tourism that is respectful of the
destination,” Collboni continued.
Collboni said the Catalan regional government would need to
approve the proposal, but explains that tourists should pay for local projects.
The mayor also revealed last month that the city would ban short-term apartment
rentals by 2028.
In 2023, Barcelona received more than 12 million tourists,
and government officials expect the number to increase in 2024.
Locals have also started
to protest the issues associated with overtourism, with organized demonstrations
that included shooting visitors with water guns and taping up hotel exits to
keep people inside the buildings.
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