An ERC proposal, which has had the positive vote of the PSC and Bcomú, will allow the four euros that tourists currently pay – for a person – will not be the only payment that visitors will make. All tourists also pay the Generalitat that ranges between one euro per person and night for the rooms in hotels of less than four stars up to 3.50 euros a night for 5 -star establishments. The next fall is planned in the Parliament so that the Generalitat tax rises and oscillates between two and seven euros per person and night, depending on the type of hotel where they stay. With the sum of both taxes, in 2029 tourists, depending on the accommodation where they stay, will pay between 10 and 15 euros per person. A family of four members will pay, then, between 40 and 60 euros per day to stay in the Catalan capital.
ERC’s proposal was approved this Friday at the Plenary Session of the Barcelona City Council, thanks to the favorable vote of the PSC and Bcomú. Junts has refrained and PP and Vox have voted against. Without taking into account how the IEET increases – whose debate must be carried out next October at the Parliament of Catalonia, 5 euros per client and night; In 2026 they will be 6; 7 euros in 2027 and 8 in 2028.
The ERC leader in Barcelona, Elisenda Alamany, has defended the increase in the tourist rate alleging: “Governing tourism is not to place either right or left. You have to distribute the income of tourism between the people of the city and the rate is the best way.” Councilor Aranu Vives, from Junts, has announced that the abstention of the post -convergentes and added: “You cannot criminalize tourism.” For his part, Carolina Recio, from Barcelona in Comú, explained that the vote of Colau was affirmative “for responsibility” but has affected that the time to raise the maximum to visitors is placed until 2029: “It is necessary to be ambitious.” Both PP and Vox have considered the initiative and a threat to a “strategic” part of the city’s economy.
Once the ERC proposal has been approved, the deputy mayor of Tourism, Jordi Valls, have appeared together with Alamany. Valls has expressed the intention of incorporating this progressive increase in the tourist rate into the tax ordinances of 2026. The deputy mayor has assured that after the IBI and the surplus value, the tourist rate is the major income that the city receives reaching 120 million euros. Valls did not want to make a projection of how much money the session can collect in 2028 then and, therefore, the tourist rate of these establishments will not be received.
For its part, the ERC leader has been proud of the approval of the progressive rise of the tourist rate: “It is clear that tourism problems are not solved or putting a red carpet, nor reaching extremes. We want to recover balance. With the income we get we will improve the lives of the neighbors.”
