Barcelona Mayor Promises to Up Cruise Passenger Tax

Barcelona is planning to increase its tourist tax for cruise passengers to more than its current 7 euros-a-day cost.

That’s according to Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni, who spoke on Sunday in an interview with local newspaper El Pais as anti-tourism protests continued through Spain.

According to the newspaper, Collboni said that the plan is to “substantially [increase] the tax for stopover cruise passengers,” meaning passengers who are in the city for less than 12 hours.

The mayor told the paper that those passengers bring an “intensive use of public space without any benefit for the city and a feeling of occupation and saturation” and that “we want to have tourism that is respectful of the destination.” The tax increase would have to be approved by the regional government.

Public sentiment against tourism in Spain is increasing as residents complain that an influx of visitors are driving up housing costs in city centers, making life more unaffordable for those living there.

On Sunday, thousands of residents protested against tourism in Palma de Mallorca, carrying signs that read “not to mass tourism,” according to Reuters. Other protests have occurred in Malaga, the Canary Islands, and Barcelona this year alone. Protests in Barcelona, a city that plans to ban housing rentals, earlier this month included scenes of protestors spraying tourists with water and chanting “Tourists go home.”

The potential tax increase in Barcelona is far from the first anti-tourism move from a European destination this year. In June, Greece’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the time has come to place restrictions on the number of cruise ships visiting the country’s most popular islands. Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain have all also put in restrictions on cruising to Venice, Amsterdam, and Barcelona, respectively.