Tourist tax debate

Malaga City Council will not, for the time being, introduce a tourist tax. The tax on overnight stays for visitors has already been applied in Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, as well as in many other European cities.

In a speech in Madrid, Malaga’s Mayor, Francisco de la Torre, said that it requires a regional decision that the Junta continues to rule out due to a lack of “consensus with the sector”.

De la Torre insisted that the creation of this tax, “would never be a unilateral decision”, and that it would require prior regulation by the Andalucian Government. The Councillor for Tourism, Arturo Bernal, also pointed out that there has been a strong rejection from the tourism sector which, as he said, “does not want to hear about the tourist tax and they don’t want to negotiate on this issue”.

Apply common sense

Meanwhile, the Andalucian business community, through the employers’ association Comercio Andalucía, has expressed their “favourable” stance on the introduction of a tourist tax. In a statement they say, “you only have to apply common sense to realise that the existence or not of a tourist tax is not a determining factor for tourists or visitors when choosing their destination”.

Comercio Andalucía believes that “there are other, much more important factors” which determine the attractiveness of a tourist destination and which are related to the infrastructure and services, the cultural, natural, historic and gastronomic attractions, among others.