The Balearic Government has put on the table its recipe against tourist massification with measures that include the uprising of the ecotase or the creation of a tax on the vehicles enrolled outside the islands. According to the Regional Executive, this package is necessary to move towards the sustainability of the archipelago.
The sustainable tourism tax -popularly ecotasa- It will rise up to a maximum of six euros in summer -Now is at 4 euros in its highest and 1.5 section in the lowest- and will fall in winter. This rate will also range in four sections according to the season and with the exception of January and February, months in what will not be paid.
In turn, the Executive of the Islands has reported that the cruise ships will triple in the summer months (June, July and August), from 2 to 6 euros, while residents will be exempt. This exemption will be possible thanks to the creation of an autonomic deduction of up to 250 euros which will allow to return this rate to residents in their income statement.
As has already been made, the regional government of the Popular Party also plans to create a new and pioneer tax for tourist vehicles, which will mainly affect the ‘Rent a Car’ and tourists who travel with their car to the archipelago, to compensate for the impact of emissions and relieve congestion on roads.
The tax will apply both to private vehicles that circulate temporarily for a time of less than six months and to the driver without driver that do not appear in non -tourist records. The rate, in turn, will vary depending on emissions and circulation time between 30 and 80 euros, and the collection would be exclusively for investments in public transport and sustainable mobility. However, the new tax is pending negotiation with shipping companies, the ‘Rent a Car’, economic entities and political parties.
On the other hand, the anti -aturation measures packages hardens the fight against the illegal tourism offer. Marketing portals will be forced to demand the registration number of the accommodation to be marketed and will take responsibility for possible infractions to both the owners and the marketer platforms. The sanctions, in turn, increase by 25%, with fines of up to 500,000 euros.
The Balearic Government, however, will reduce the sanction up to 80% when these homes become allocated to social rental at a limited price, in which case, the beneficiary of the rent will be the administration. On the other hand, the prohibition of new tourist places in multifamily housing and raising the quality demands for the renewal of the existing ones is proposed.
All these proposals will have to be approved in the Balearic Parliament, where, it must be remembered, the PP governs in a minority with 25 deputies plus the seat of Formentera and needs 30 to reach the majority.
The proposal arises after closing the first phase of the sustainability pact, which the Balearic Government began in May 2024. Exactly, on May 22 the table of the Social and Political Pact for the economic, social and environmental sustainability of Balearic Islands was established. The first meeting was attended by more than 140 entities from different areas of the Balearic society. There a diagnostic phase opened that included a collection of proposals with a popular process and the creation of several working groups.
Last week that first phase concluded and now a round of proposals begins in which the Government will raise these measures, which will have to negotiate in the regional Parliament.
It will not be easy for Prohens to carry out this package of anti -aturation measures for the particular rupture with Voxwhich is not prone to raise the ecotasa or create new taxes. For its part, the left, which in eight years barely took any measure against tourist saturation or touched the ecotasa, now raises increases of even twice the current rate.
From the beginning of the legislature, the regional president Marga Prohens admits without ambiguity that there is saturation in the archipelago and it is time to put “limits”, although it also clarifies that it is a phenomenon that is not widespread or occurs all year, not even throughout the high season.
Although in its first year of legislature it has challenged the tax decrease and has made a deep tax reform, Prohens now proposes to create a new tax and raise the ecotasa, A tax to which the PP was opposed before arrival.
The regional leader has captured the discomfort generated by tourism among residents and understands that The sensation of massification is a very transversal phenomenon, that is no longer limited to minority or left sectors, as happened until a few years ago. In 2024 there were two mass demonstrations against the negative effects of tourism in the Balearic Islands that claimed “tourism but not.”
#Balearic #Islands #raise #ecotasa #put #tax #tourist #vehicles #fight #massification
