CITIES across Malaga are debating whether to introduce a tourism tax.
Both the council of Malaga and Seville recently held debates on the issue.
In the last plenary session, the government team in Malaga City Council rejected a proposal by Podemos to charge a tourist tax of one euro for every visitor staying in the city.
The councillor for Tourism, Jacobo Florido, opposed the tax saying: “Some 170,000 families make a living from tourism, which employs some 13,000 companies. The taxes paid by these businesses already go into the municipal coffers.”
Photo: Wikipedia
The PP and Ciudadanos both opposed the measures with the PSOE sitting on the fence, saying: “There should be a debate with those involved in the tourism sector and studies should be carried out to apply this tax of one or one and a half euros for the city”.
Malaga council has now asked the junta de Andalucía to work on a study and draft proposal to establish whether such as tax is workable.
The Mayor said on Wednesday, 20 July, that the tax should be ‘applied to attracting tourism of the highest quality, which is what improves the coexistence of tourism with the city’.
Carlos Pérez-Lanzac, president of the Andalusian Tourist Housing Association, was less positive, saying: “Entering a potential recession, with rising inflation prices, the energy crisis, and the volatility that still exists due to the war in Russia, I do not think it is the time to raise a tax as it may go against the competitiveness of Malaga as a destination”.
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