The Future Of Tourism: Two euros a night

Be afraid, be very afraid? In an article a couple of weeks ago I announced that the eco-tax was back, if only back as a likely electoral pledge by certain parties. We now know more of what one of these parties - Més - has in mind. Its tax, dubbed a tax for tourism reinvestment, would be charged at an average of two euros per night per tourist. The charging would be in ports and airports and the revenue raised would amount to 108 million euros per annum.

Més has arrived at a series of programmes - fifteen in all - that will form the basis for its May election manifesto. One of these is the programme for the economy. It is this one which sets out the party line on tourism, and at the weekend the Més presidential candidate, Biel Barceló, described the tourist tax as "the future of tourism and the economy of our land" (by which he meant Mallorca and the Balearics). The tax and reinvestment that would come from it, he suggested, would guarantee shared prosperity and he went on to say that the tax would be ploughed into investments in the environment, education and innovation.

Més has spent two years debating its proposals, so one would assume that it has had sufficient time to think them through. The fifteen different programmes are detailed enough but, and the tourist tax is a prime example, they lack detail as to implementation and justification. Sure, its economic programme document starts by stating that the planet is finite and that Mallorca is finite, but justification for what it is proposing demands more than a pledge to save the world.

In principle, I am not opposed to a tourist tax. Tourists should shoulder some burden for the use of resources in the same way as the islands' taxpayers do. There is, if you like, a moral obligation to do so. But principle is not the same as practice and nor is it justification when the claims that Més is making for it are questionable within the context of broader proposals it has for economic reform. The 108 million euros are roughly equivalent to what the Balearics receive through the central government's budget for investment in the likes of infrastructure and the environment. But Més wants the whole system of financing reformed. It wants tax sovereignty, which implies much higher levels of direct investment and a greater share of the tax revenue pot than is currently the case. Were there to be such a reform, then why would there be any need for a tourist tax?

The fact is that such a reform would be very unlikely to occur unless there really was a Podemos-sized shift in central government, and even then it might not occur. But whether it did or it didn't, for Més to claim that some 100 million euros per annum would represent some tourism or economic future is laughable. In terms of overall financing for the Balearics at present that amount is chicken feed.

Coming to the implementation, there are three points to be made. The first relates to the proposed tax rate. It is more than double the typical rate that Catalonia applies, and in Catalonia the tax is only levied on tourists over the age of sixteen and on a maximum of seven nights. So, a higher tax rate might be considered prejudicial when compared with the competition that Catalonia represents. Following on from this, the Catalonian tax was initially going to be higher, but the government reduced it because it was felt to be too onerous. The revenues that Catalonia actually receives through its tourist tax are consequently much lower than originally envisaged, but the millions that are raised are clearly earmarked: for tourism promotion and infrastructure.

The third point has to do with how the tax would be collected. Més says that it would be charged at ports and airports. But how? Will all tourists have a document (or passport) stamped with a date of arrival and then divvy up on departure? Will everyone arriving at the airport have to prove that he or she is not a tourist? Sorry, but I don't think that Més has thought it through.

Més will not win the election in May, but there is every chance of it being part of a coalition, and as I observed previously, both Podemos and PSOE are also talking about a tourist tax. But what none of them seem to appreciate is that Mallorca holds far greater interest for the British and German media than anywhere else in Spain. Partly this is historical, partly it is because of stuff that goes in the likes of Magalluf. Slap a two-euro-a-night tax on tourists, and there will be media hell to pay. I might agree with a tourist tax in principle but I am more than willing to swallow that principle.