Majorca and Ibiza are urging government to scrap off tourist tax

 Wednesday, February 13, 2019 

Majorca and Ibiza are urging the government to stop the controversial tourist tax as it is a “serious threat” to the future of the islands.

The move comes after a six-week delay in the start of the holiday season on the islands.

Number of Brits visiting the islands has been low for this time of the year due to factors like Easter falling in late April, concerns surrounding Brexit and the continued revival of markets like Turkey and Egypt.

The three main hotel associations in the Balearics are urging for immediate withdrawal of the tourist tax which was reintroduced in 2016 and then doubled in 2018.

It means that holidaymakers are charged between two and four Euros extra each night for staying in Majorca, Menorca or Ibiza, payable at the hotel receptions at the start or end of their break.

A spokesman for the Hotel Business Federation of Mallorca (FEHM), the Hotel Business Federation of Ibiza and Formentera (FEHIF) and the Hotel Association of Menorca (ASHOME) said: “Those decisions could not have been more inappropriate given the uncertainty looming over the sector could already be glimpsed.”

The spokesman said: “The Brexit process in the United Kingdom directly affects the reserves of one of our main markets, which in the period from January to November 2018 has registered a decrease in the islands of 1.5 per cent, in Menorca minus ten per cent and for the 2019 season is even more pronounced.”

Hoteliers have said: “And the tendency is for the increase to be even greater, hovering around 59 per cent in Turkey and 58 per cent in Egypt.”

They are also citing the devaluation of the Turkish lira.

The three Balearic hotel associations have demanded that the islands’ government has to listen to them and scrap off the tourist tax as soon as possible.

The hoteliers also want new measures to speed up hotel refurbishments and less red tape, more control over illegal tourist rentals, with more inspections and fines.

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