Under the balcony where the Portuguese Republic was proclaimed in 1910, the mayor of Lisbon is interested in the origin of several tourists. Carlos Moedas (Beja, 53 years old), who has been president of the City Council since 2021 after an electoral victory that ended 14 years of socialist management, stops to chat with the guide and a group of Catalans. A member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD, centre-right), he claims moderation as his main political trait, also to resolve the conflicts that tourism generates in everyday life. Under his mandate, the tourist tax has doubled from two to four euros, it has begun to be charged to cruise passengers and now he intends to regulate tuk tuk traffic to end the chaos they generate in the centre. Moedas regrets some decisions of his predecessors such as the central location of the cruise terminal or the open bar of licences for tourist apartments that has saturated some neighbourhoods.
Ask. Lisbon is a charismatic city that is being transformed by the tourist boom. What is the limit of its tourist load?
Answer. Tourism is very important, 20% of the economy and 25% of employment. Without tourism, people have a hard time, as happened during Covid. I have tried to diversify so that Lisbon does not depend so much on tourism and I have opted for innovation. Technology companies are almost another 20% of the economy. At the moment, Lisbon receives an average of between 35,000 and 40,000 tourists a day, less than 10% of the population (546,000 inhabitants), and one million from the metropolitan area. The boom predates my arrival at the mayor’s office. I defend a tourism of tradition and difference. That is what we cannot lose. It is a game of balance between the Lisbon of the Lisbonites and tourism. I want it to be of quality and bring money to give better conditions to the Portuguese. That is why I have increased the tourist tax from two to four euros.
P. What concrete measures have you taken to limit the undesirable effects of tourism?
R. In 16 of the 24 parishes In Lisbon, new licences for tourist apartments are no longer permitted. Between 2010 and 2021, the number of tourist apartments grew from 500 to 18,000. When I arrived in 2021, there were already 18,000, although many are licences that are not operational. There are just over 9,000 in operation. So I put up obstacles but I don’t want a total ban. There are areas far from the centre that can have them and others, such as Santa Maria Maior, with 65% of the accommodation dedicated to tourist apartments. This is unacceptable and should never have happened.
P. The mayor of Barcelona will not renew the licences granted to convert 10,000 tourist apartments into traditional housing. Is this something he is considering?
R. I cannot take away people’s rights, that would not be proper in a state of law. But I can work with them to propose the transformation into buildings with affordable rents. This must be agreed with the owners. Many have licenses that expire in 2030 and I am not going to renew those.
P. Will you not renew licenses in congested areas when their term expires?
R. Until a balance is reached, no. The regulation I want is progressive: non-absolute restrictions in areas with between 5% and 15% of tourist apartments and a total ban in areas with more than 15%. If when the license expires it is an area with more than 15%, then it would not be renewed.
I will not renew licenses for tourist apartments in areas where they exceed 15% of the accommodations
P. Until we get to 2030, are there any other temporary measures for these? parishes saturated?
R. Look, a lot of those parishes They had few inhabitants in the nineties and two thousand. So, tourist apartments had some positive aspects in those areas, but they have gone beyond the limits. In moderation, tourist accommodation is not bad. There are streets where there are no people who want to live, like Rua da Prata. If it were empty, it would be worse. In those streets tourist rentals make sense, in others not. We have to find a balance. I want to work with the owners to reconvert the uses.
P. Another problematic aspect is the disappearance of traditional shops, those that give identity. Do you have any measures to prevent this?
R. We have a protection figure, the store with historywhich already includes almost 200. If we lose them, we lose interest as a city. We are giving more incentives for them to remain. And with the increase in the tourist tax we will have more resources for cleaning or equipment. With this tax we have financed the Royal Treasure Museum, a palace half destroyed by the earthquake of 1795. The Tejo Park can be another attraction and helps to decentralize.
P. Is there overtourism in certain areas?
R. There is no overtourism in Lisbon, although there are areas where people are concentrated because they go to the same places at the same times. If tourists were spread out there would not be such intensity. It is part of our strategy, and also that of improving quality. We want tourists with purchasing power who bring money.
P. Do they generate little now?
R. Tourism needs to improve its quality. There is still a lot of tourism from farewell parties for young people which does not contribute much, generates cleaning costs and does not compensate. Increasing quality has to do with making investments of a certain cultural level. Tourism plays an important role if the Lisbonite perceives that it generates something positive through income, cleaning or a new museum and that he has a house to live in. Many do not see it that way now, although never before has there been a local government that invested as much in housing as mine, 560 million euros.
P. The previous socialist government wanted to introduce compulsory rental of empty houses. You were against it. What do you propose to encourage these houses to come onto the rental market?
R. Empty houses in the centre pay more taxes, it is already a penalty. Forcing private individuals to rent them out is an attack on something that is at the foundation of democracy, the right to private property. We do not live in a dictatorship and we cannot force people to give up a right. I find it shameful that the State, with so much wealth, wants to force individuals. I think it is an abuse of power. My goal is to ensure that in the next two years there are no empty houses owned by me in the town hall.
P. Those who defend forced renting argue that democracy fails by not enabling access to decent housing.
R. These are two rights and they are not antagonistic. The State and the municipalities are the ones who have to fulfill the right to housing, it is our responsibility. For the private sector there is the private market and we cannot demand that they resolve something that is our obligation.
P. What is the public asset of Lisbon City Council?
R. We have 22,000 dwellings, which can accommodate 66,000 people, more than 10% of the city’s population. There are few European cities with that volume.
In two years we have delivered 1,860 homes to people who cannot pay anything or have very low salaries.
P. And how many are empty?
R. When I joined there were 2,000, we have already recovered a thousand and we are still counting. We are the largest landlord in the country and in two years we have handed out 1,860. Every two weeks I hand out 30 keys to people who cannot pay anything or who have very low salaries, such as police officers, teachers, nurses. Before, 10 apartments were handed out a year. Now, the resolution of the housing problem takes a long time. That is why we have a program to help families pay rent, when it exceeds a third of their income, which already benefits a thousand families. It is an innovative measure that we pay for with European funds. We have approved the cooperatives so that young people can build houses where they do not have to pay for the land, which has the support of the Communist Party.
P. In the past, municipal assets have been auctioned off and sometimes ended up being used as hotels. Will they continue selling buildings to tourist developers?
R. I am the only Speaker of the House who has never sold assets, or if I have, it has been very minimal. We have recovered a lot of assets. All that is possible should be used for housing. It is not a job done overnight, but I consider the opposition’s criticism to be unfair because it is an area in which we have worked hard.
P. Should there be a moratorium on hotel openings?
R. There is a Municipal Master Plan that we have to comply with. We have already been taken to court for not allowing a hotel that is included in the plan and we have accepted it because the owner will be able to build it. The plan has to be changed and give more flexibility to the local executive to change uses. I am not in favour of moratoriums or prohibitions, managing a city is managing conflicts. A city without tourism is a city without an economy.
The ships that dock cannot continue polluting the city, they have to be electric
P. In 2023, 700,000 visitors will arrive on cruise ships. Restrictions are being imposed in many cities. What is your vision for Lisbon?
R. Allowing a cruise terminal so close to the centre was a mistake. I would not have done it, although the context ten years ago was different. It is a type of tourism that does not contribute much. They tend to be short stays, sometimes a couple of hours. In this mandate we have decided that they pay the tourist tax, something that did not happen before. Another fundamental issue, which we are working on with the Ministry of Infrastructure, is that the ships that dock cannot continue to pollute and must be electric.
P. One of the problems facing tourism is the use of tuk-tuks. Are you planning to take action against this?
R. The situation is unacceptable at the moment. The chaos that has been experienced in recent years cannot continue. Although there are some restrictions on traffic and parking, they are often not respected. We cannot continue to allow the excess of vehicles circulating daily in the centre and causing multiple problems. We want to develop regulations for the sector. In recent years, the balance with the needs of the city has not been maintained. We need to limit the number of tuk tuks and make them all electric.
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