“I need Santiago de Compostela to cease being only a vacationer vacation spot and a theme park,” mayor says.
Santiago de Compostela, the vacation spot of Spain’s famed Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, needs to introduce a vacationer tax to curb overcrowding.
The favored vacation spot in Spain’s northwestern autonomous neighborhood of Galicia welcomed nearly 440,000 ‘pilgrims’ in 2022. Its annual common variety of guests exceeds 300,000.
Walkers take a variety of pilgrimage routes beginning in Spain, France and Portugal and ending on the metropolis’s Ninth-century cathedral. For Christians, the Romanesque basilica is believed to be the burial place of Saint James the Nice, one of many apostles of Jesus.
Sworn in as the town’s first feminine mayor final month, Goretti Sanmartín of the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) introduced plans to advertise sustainable tourism and make Santiago de Compostela a greater place for locals to dwell, in line with Spanish information company Europa Press.
How a lot will Santiago de Compostela’s vacationer tax be?
The thought of a vacationer tax was introduced to hoteliers by Santiago’s former mayor Xosé Sánchez Bugallo in April, Spanish radio station La Cadena SER stories.
A regional tax that may very well be launched in 2025 was proposed. It will be charged as a nightly charge by the accommodations and is more likely to value between €0.50 and €2.50, relying on the kind of lodging.
It’s thought the tax might elevate between €2.5 and €3 million per 12 months for Santiago, which might go in the direction of sustaining the town’s historic centre.
Mayor Sanmartín raised the concept once more in her investiture speech, which laid out plans for ‘acutely aware tourism’ within the metropolis.
“I need this municipality to cease being only a vacationer vacation spot and a theme park,” she stated, in line with Europa Press.
“I need a Santiago from which there isn’t any have to flee because of uncontrolled tourism. We aspire to… take pleasure in a wealthy and affluent tourism sector but in addition a cushty and breathable metropolis.”
She stated that securing housing for locals would even be a precedence.
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela itself is free to enter, however guests will pay a €12 charge to realize full entry to the museums, tower and cloister.
The place else in Spain costs vacationer taxes?
Vacationer taxes are usually not a brand new idea in Spain. Barcelona launched a charge in 2012, which has been steadily rising since then. In April 2024, it is going to enhance to €3.25 per evening.
Valencia additionally plans to introduce a vacationer tax inside the subsequent 12 months of between €0.50 and €2 to contribute to sustainable tourism.
Vacation lodging on Spain’s Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera), can be topic to a tax, which may attain as much as €4 per evening in excessive season.
