British holidaymakers visiting the Balearics Islands this summer have been warned to expect higher tourist taxes.
The regional government announced today it was going to raise the so-called ecotasa visitors pay to stay in hotels and other tourist accommodation to up to six euros per person per night.
The fee cruise passengers pay will be tripled from its current rate of two euros to six, while Marga Prohens’ government also announced a new tax on private holiday cars.
The owners of vehicles registered outside the islands who decide to enter with their vehicles will be asked to pay between 30 to 85 euroes.
The triple whammy comes after a summer of discontent last year in which thousands of locals marched in Palma during two large demos to protest at the effects of mass tourism.
Smaller protests took place in Ibiza and Menorca along with a number of other actions including the occupation of beaches which campaigners say have become no-go areas for locals and their families.
The Balearic Islands government responded by saying it would look into ways of alleviating some of the negative effects of tourist massification.
Estimates being bandied around today were pointing to a standard family car facing a charge of around 50 euros to enter the Balearics from the Spanish mainland.
The measure is expected to impact on car rental companies with vehicles registered outside of the islands that bring in extra cars in the high season. Analysts say they are bound to try to pass on the extra cost to customers.
The creation of the new tax will need parliamentary approval to become law.
The cruise passenger tax increase, a rise of 200 per cent, is the highest of the planned rises.
The ecotasa would not have to be paid in January and February under the new proposals and the amount charged would not rise outside of the high season.
But in June, July and August, the tax charged would increase between 66 and 200 per cent.
For four-star hotels it would rise from the current four euros per person per night to six.
Balearics Islands Tourism Minister Jaume Bauza said: ‘These islands have reached their limit and the pattern of growth is no longer sustainable and it is essential to deal courageously with the transformation of the model.’
The islands, made up of Majorca, Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera, received 18.7 million visitors last year which is more than 15 times its permanent population. This year 20 million visitors are expected to pick the popular holiday destination.
Majorca has been one of the centres of the protests set to continue this year which have seen demonstrators take to the streets to express their anger over the problems associated with mass tourism such as pollution, lack of affordable housing for locals linked to Airbnb holiday rentals and traffic chaos.
‘Tourist go home’ graffiti reappeared on access signs to the beautiful Tramontana mountains in Majorca in May last year following an anti mass-tourism protest in the capital Palma which led to organisers apologising for the abuse foreign holidaymakers received.
The words ‘Go Home Tourist’ were first scrawled in English last April over a wall underneath a real estate promotion billboard in Nou Llevant near Palma.
Island newspaper Diario de Mallorca described it at the time as the first example of tourism-phobia in the neighbourhood and said it was targeted at its ‘new foreign residents’ following the purchase of recently-built properties by Germans.
Anti mass-tourism protestors also put up fake closure signs in Majorca to dissuade holidaymakers from visiting beaches.
On July 27 last year around 250 protestors impeded tourist access to a picture-postcard Menorcan beach in a ‘surprise action’.
Activists boasted of filling a car park by Cala Turqueta, a beautiful cove on the island’s southern coast, with ‘residents’ cars’.
They then used towels and their own bodies to shape the message ‘SOS Menorca’ on the sand by the waterline.
The unannounced protest, by environmental non-profit organisation GOB Menorca, resulted in the car park being ‘blocked’ to holidaymakers for around six hours from early morning according to local reports.
A total ban on holidaymakers visiting a famous Menorcan village dubbed the ‘Spanish Mykonos’ was discussed by residents last August.
Although around 30 per cent of picture-postcard Binibeca Vell’s 195 homeowners wanted a total prohibition on outside visitors 24/7, a modification of visiting restriction times ended up being agreed.
The holidaymaker veto was said to be on the cards ahead of the vote after locals chained off the 22 entrances to their community at night-time earlier in the year.
Residents voted to put restrictions in place after visitors flocked back to Menorca following the end of the Covid pandemic.
Some selfie-hunting holidaymakers ended up trampling through private properties in tourist attraction Benibeca Vell, a privately-owned community although it is widely described as a village, and interrupting their rest times.
Since May 1 visitors had only been allowed to access its streets between 11am and 8pm and a tightening of restrictions had been talked about.
In January Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced ‘unprecedented’ proposals to try to limit property purchases by non-resident Brits as part of attempts to solve the country’s housing crisis following a wave of anti-tourism protests.
He revealed his government intended discouraging nationals of non-EU countries from buying on the Costas and other parts of Spain by increasing the amount of taxes they have to pay.
Sanchez announced the measure as part of a 12-point plan to tackle housing problems which would also see homeowners operating short-term Airbnb-style holiday rental properties being taxed as if they were running hotels.