Barcelona wants to pay more for the apartments, the tourist tax, and the parks

The city of Barcelona faces different challenges as a result of tourism in the city, mass tourism in the most touristic sites, traffic, access to housing for being exploited as tourist accommodation etc. which is why the local government of the city developed, in several stages, a strategic plan for tourism with the purpose of stabilizing and regularizing the destination.

In order to increase fiscal measures

As you remember the city government of Barcelona presented in January of this year its Proposals for the Strategic Plan of Tourism 2020, for the next four years, in which it was enunciated a series of fiscal measures so that the “temporary citizens” term in which it refers to the tourists, contributed more to the economy of Barcelona.

This document proposes 10 programs, 30 lines of action and about 100 measures, which are aimed at achieving an urban balance in the city, betting on the sustainability of the destination, involving the whole community and above all, bring more benefit to the citizenship.

IBI, Property Tax, and other Measures

Under this last concept, Barcelona Town Hall, through the plan, raised the idea of several fiscal measures which is one, to create a specific Property Tax (IBI, call in Spain) to the tourist apartments that operate in the Catalan capital, to increase their taxation taking into account that the use of the property is not residential, but lucrative.

This is one of the central ideas of the tourism plan that the Consistory is elaborating to “govern” the tourist activity until the year 2020. Even so, the modification of the tax can only be considered for the moment as an incipient idea, mainly because, to apply it, it would be necessary to modify the local Tax Law; a process for which it would be necessary to count on the collaboration of the Government of the Generalitat.

The Strategic Plan includes also other actions such as raising the tourist rate “to the level of other European cities such as Paris”, boosting a rate for cruise ships and establishing an additional payment for buses parked in large crowded areas such as Montjuïc, Barceloneta and the Holy Family.

This Strategic Tourism Plan, which replaces the one approved for the period between 2010 and 2015, also plans to create an Observatory on this activity to “generate information that gives possibilities to improve knowledge, management, and transparency.”

The Document plans to manage areas of great tourist flow through concrete actions, which will begin tested first in the vicinity of the Sagrada Familia and in the neighborhood of Barceloneta, so before anything changes, we invite you to visit this fantastic city and enjoy all his activities; his rich nightlife, great beaches, perfect weather and a delicious gastronomy, and all of this you can have it in on place Barcelona-Home. Click HERE and plan your best trip ever!

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Source: lavanguardia.com
Photo credits: lavanguardia.com
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flickr.com – Eric Chan