Toni Perez, mayor of Benidorm (Alicante), roundly condemns proposed Tourist Tax

BENIDORM mayor Toni Perez condemned the “tourist levy” as a euphemism. 

Speaking on July 14 outside Les Corts, the regional parliament building in Valencia City, Perez predicted that it would impact negatively on the tourist industry. 

The regional parliament had begun debating the levy-fee-tax that same day, a motion that the PSPV socialists  – the largest party in the PSPV -Compromis-Unidas Podemos coalition – finally agreed to back, despite its misgivings.

A day earlier, Francesc Colomer who heads the regional government’s Tourism Board, described the decision as a “tactical error”, although he too belongs to the PSPV (the PSOE party in the Valencian Community). 

Toni Perez pointed out that the actual text of the proposed law referred to the “levy” as a tax and predicted that this would punish the Valencia region’s tourist economy. 

“The sector that contributes to creating wealth for everybody – and redistributes as few others do throughout the Valencian Community – will see its competitive edge adversely affected,” Benidorm’s mayor insisted.   

“The approximately €4 billion euros that tourism delivers to the Generalitat will be penalised by this new tax created by Ximo Puig’s socialist party,” Perez said. 

“The PSPV, Unidas Podemos and Compromis have a deep, ideological aversion to tourism,” Perez continued.  “Instead of solving the Valencia region’s serious problems, it seems they only want to create them and, as in this case, generate tourism-phobia.” 

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