Tourist Tax - Again

Put tourist tax and Podemos together and place them on the front pages, and you can be certain of a reaction. And there was a reaction. Strange that the discussion of a possible return to a tourist tax that has been mooted by other parties - a discussion that has been had for several months - should not cause a similar reaction. That's the power of Podemos perhaps.

What was rather lost was the fact that Podemos were only considering a tax. It is a possibility, but they pointed out that they would look at the economic viability of such a tax and also at whether there was public support for it. A few days later, the Podemos leader in the Balearics, Alberto Jarabo, implied that the party might well not pursue the idea of a tax. This came up at a long-anticipated meeting with the Mallorcan hoteliers: the two haven't previously had any real dialogue. Jarabo insisted that the hoteliers "would not dictate laws", one of which would relate to a tourist tax, but his stance was less antagonistic than might have been expected. Where a tax is concerned, it would be a matter that would take account of opinion of different sectors and of experts.

The hoteliers are of course against a tax. They would prefer that taxes in general were lowered, though they didn't receive any hope that the tourist rate of IVA (10%) will be cut: Mariano Rajoy has ruled it out once more. The Partido Popular, natural allies of the hoteliers, is finding that support for it is waning somewhat. The tourism industry in general is said to be looking increasingly favourably on Albert Rivera's Ciudadanos (C's) party, with the Balearics being one of two regions of Spain where industry voices in favour of the C's are the loudest: Madrid is the other.

Podemos is not the only party to have been holding talks with the hoteliers: PSOE has been as well. Inma de Benito, the vice-president of the hoteliers' federation, called for PSOE to ensure that there would be stability from any pact of the left following the election. Francina Armengol, PSOE's leader, responded that stability has not always existed during the current legislature, as there have been three education ministers and three health ministers. What this had to do with tourism was not entirely clear, though she might have mentioned that there have also been two tourism ministers, albeit that these are two fewer than during the last administration that PSOE headed, when there were four.

While the hint of a tourist tax was generating controversy and opposition, a report came out which showed that in destinations where a tourist tax has been introduced - and the principle of a tax is widespread - it has had no harmful effect on tourism. Catalonia is one of these destinations, as I pointed out in this column last week. Away from Spain, there are direct competitors to Mallorca which have a tax. Croatia is one. The tariff varies according to a categorisation of towns and cities, with the highest rate being seven kuna per day in high season: slightly less than one euro. Turkey does things a little differently: it charges for a tourist visa.