Tourism

The 4th Deputy Mayor, Jordi Valls, presented the Budget and Tax Byelaws for 2024 as a sound, solvent and responsible proposal that seeks to give the city confidence and stability.

The municipal government is proposing a Barcelona City Council budget for 2024 that will act as an economic driver, stabilise the city and prioritise the well-being of Barcelona’s residents, with a firm commitment to clean, safe public spaces, social care and housing, and transforming the neighbourhoods. The budget, which is being presented publicly so that it can be debated and processed, is the highest Barcelona has ever had. It expects the city to have €3.735 billion next year, which means an extra €140m available, an increase of 3.9% in available resources compared to this year.

Current revenue as a whole is expected to grow by €314m thanks to the final settlement of the share in State revenue plus the increase in the municipal surcharge and the Tax on Stays in Tourist Establishments (IEET).

As regards the Tax Byelaws for 2024, the main objective is again to avoid increasing the tax burden on city residents. Instead, it proposes further steps in using the IEET municipal surcharge to tax tourism linked to activities that have less social return and a greater impact on the city, specifically by increasing the charge for cruise ships with a stopover of less than 12 hours and for tourist lets (HUTs), from the €3.25 established in the municipal surcharge to €4 from 1/04/2024.

As HUTs and short-stay cruise liners have an impact in terms of intensive use of public space, the cost of housing and relations with city residents, the goal is to increase their contribution to the City Council’s finances, thus helping to tackle the externalities they generate and city management of those externalities, in terms of greater expenditure on cleaning, maintenance and public safety.

This proposal, which has to be negotiated and agreed with the party groups in order to pass, would make the total taxation associated with tourism the City Council’s third largest source of revenue, with an estimated €95m.