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ARCHIVED - Seville thinking about implementing a tourist tax
The popular tourist destination in Andalucía is considering charging visitors 1 euro per night to stay in hotels
The Mayor of Seville, Antonio Muñoz, has signalled his support for a special tax levied on tourists for sleeping in the city’s hotels.
During his participation in the Joly Forum held in Seville, the Mayor pointed out that “the cities that have [the tourist tax] are collecting significant amounts [of money] that can serve to mitigate some of the negative effects of tourism.”
Read more: What is a tourist tax?
One of the possible negative effects of tourism, as Seville has found out first-hand this week and in recent months, is the destruction of city infrastructure and wild, illegal behaviour by football hooligans.
These actions could be offset, says the Mayor, by collecting just one euro per night for each tourist stay in the city, which would leave the City Hall with an extra seven million euros in their coffers each year.
“Can you imagine what we could do with that amount?” he said.
In Spain, the tourist tax is currently only applied in the Balearic Islands (including Mallorca and Ibiza) and Catalonia (including Barcelona). These Spanish holiday destinations tax their visitors with an increase in the price of their overnight stays, while the Valencian Community and Alicante have launched a controversial bill to try to implement the tourist tax as well, to loud protest by hoteliers.
Bringing the tourist tax to Seville is not popular with the Junta de Andalucía, the regional government, who have already stood against it once when it was proposed by the previous Mayor.
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