In a report on the tourism tax, New Green Transition Chair between University of Valencia. Proponents of the overnight tax, particularly Botànic, and in particular Combines PodemAs for defending their positions, especially since last week, the results of the study by the University of Alicante, commissioned by the Autonomous Secretary of Tourism, through Invat·tur have been made public. Again, What does this research say? report, signed Aurora Peter’s Wellfull professor applied economics From the University of Valencia, its main results include “the effects of the epidemic on the economy in general and on tourism in particularr may recommend delaying the application -tourist tax- until the covid control is approved ». However, according to the professor, it makes it clear that expanding the tax on overnight stays doesn’t seem sensible to stay on the fringes of a general trend in Europe. EU. It is based on the fact that it is currently being implemented in the main tourist countries and cities of Europe. Portugal, Italy anyone Croatiadespite admitting that there is a wide variety of cases and situations. Of course, he argues that the resources created by this tax will allow the development of tourism policy tools under better conditions, and he argues that the revenues obtained should be applied clearly in the sector.
What the document says about the impact of this tax is particularly important. “It cannot be said with certainty that the implementation of the tourist tax has had a negative impact on tourism. number of tourists or overnight stays in tourism destinations”, the researcher states in the conclusion section. To support this thesis, he analyzes the following cases throughout the study: Berlin, Paris, Rome anyone amsterdam. “We can say that tourism taxation is widespread in Europe and its impact on visitor numbers is not negative,” he says.
Another thing is what happened in the case of Spain. At this point, it analyzes the evolution of tourism since the implementation of the tourist tax in the Balearic Islands and Catalonia, based on the number of incoming tourists and the number of overnight stays. As far as Catalonia is concerned, it admits a “slight” drop in visitor numbers of 0.18% in 2013, but since then the number of arrivals has been increasing every year, starting at 5.44. To 0.93% in 2015, in 2019, the year just before the outbreak of the pandemic. It’s a continuing trend when overnight stays are analyzed, but in this case, there’s a slight decline of 0.83% in 2018, according to the study.
The data for the Balearic Islands deserve special mention. What the study highlights here is that in 2016, the same year the tourist tax was approved, there was a 21.12% reduction in the number of “very important” tourist arrivals, the author literally points out. After two years the evolution is positive, the increase reaches 0.43% in 2018 and drops directly to 1.24% until the pandemic hits in 2019, during which the decline is significant as in all Destinations. However, although not detailed, the figures obtained in 2015, the year just before the tax was approved, and in 2019, the last year before the coronavirus, are clearly seen from the tables in the report. , by comparison, about 3 million visitors were lost: from 16.4 to 13.6 million.
However, what is strange is that when the evolution of overnight stays in the Balearic Islands is analyzed, the numbers are completely different. The trend was positive until 2018, from a slight drop of 0.34% in the year before covid to 1.78%. Over that time, however, the accommodation calculation has increased significantly, so much so that there were 54.6 million overnights in 2015 before the rate was approved, up from 58.1 million in 2019.
In this sense, the author writes, “it is very difficult to verify that the establishment of the tourist tax has had a negative impact on the two main variables that are often used to measure the evolution of the industry. Except for tourist arrivals to the Balearic Islands, both the number of arrivals and the number of overnight stays do not respond negatively to the payment of the rate.
References to the Community of Valencia and Benidorm are minimally limited, as is said to be when municipal budgets are said to be based on the census, and be warned that most beach attractions on the Spanish Mediterranean coast are doubling or doubling. triple their population in high season, second residence dominates, hotels dominate as in Benidorm. Finally, employers’ associations Hosbec and Aehtma list 13 points they use to oppose the rate without further consideration.