Touristic Tax

The 1st of November Catalonia's government applied a new tax, attached to the tourism industry. The bad situation of the country has obligated the Generalitat to create different captations to collect money. With this touristic tax the government will try to obtain nearly 100 millions euros per year.

Catalonia is the first region in Spain that established this kind of tax, but now regions like Canarias and Andalucia would like to introduce it, too.

This touristic tax has been imposed in hotels, campings and cruises of the region of Catalonia. The tax consists in a different amount of money, depending on the city and the stablishment's category:

In the city of Barcelona, the customers must pay 2.25€ (+VAT) in five-star hotels and cruises, 1.10€ (+VAT) in four-star hotels and 0.65€ (+VAT) in the rest of categories.

Outside the city of Barcelona, the customers must pay the same in five-star hotels and cruises, 0.90€ (+VAT) in four-star hotels and 0.45€ (+VAT) in the rest of categories.

This tax is a good way of collecting money and it is implanted in a lot of countries and touristic places like France with "la taxe de séjour" or the United States, that charges a 5-10% of the bill. However, it has become a problem for a lot of usual customers in different hotels, above all in business hotels, because they think that they are working and not doing tourism for leisure.

Do you think that it is a good tax?

Do you think that business tourists must pay it?

What do you think about the amount of money of this tax?