the president of The Chamber of the Port took over yesterday, at a conference, that, if I win the elections this year, will even propose the creation of a tourist tax in the Port in the near term. The mayor was acquiring a great over the last few years a position on the subject and, now that takes the measure goes on to say that the resulting revenue will be used to rebalance the effects of tourism in the city. The amount of the fee is not yet set, but the PUBLIC knows that the mayor admits to propose that it is two euros, the double of that practice in Lisbon.
This value, which is not closed, was presented to the members of the House of 24, the consultative council of the municipality for the economic area, that Rui Moreira met in October. At that meeting, at the PUBLIC found, Moreira has shown that it has already made some accounts, and reported the hypothesis of the Port may apply a fee of two euros. Lisbon charges a euro per night, up to a maximum of seven euros, and was estimated to receive 11 million euros in 2016. At the Port, the number of establishments is smaller than that of the capital, the promise of a revenue less also. And this would still be removed the expense with the collection machine, another factor to justify the weighting of a higher value.
Lisbon: tourist tax on overnight stays yielded 11.2 million in ten months
In the municipality it is assumed that the two reductions in the Property Tax approved in this mandate have already compensated the owners of the establishments to a value close to the revenue they will lose, if they do not want to allocate the cost of the new fee to customers. In this way, he believes the mayor is independent, the sector has little reason to complain of the extra costs and will eventually participate in the effort of improving the quality of life – and the maintenance of the population in the areas most impacted by the sector.
The inevitability of the creation of a tourist tax, to pay for each overnight stay in a hotel establishment or similar of the city was taking shape over the past two years. Moreira assured always that you do not apply this mandate, for not having made part of its electoral programme, but followed the discussion and was proving to be increasingly favourable to this measure, that it understood, from the first moment, as a resource that could be used to fix some of the problems of the recent boom of tourists in the Port.
Invited to a Eco Talks, of the online journal Echo, Moreira admitted that "there is a broad consensus in the city" about the advantages of the rate. As the PUBLIC, reported in October, the subject was widely discussed at the meeting House of the 24, in which the independent asked that the councillors would help to think if it makes sense for the application of this fee. At that time, the spokesman for the mayor guarantee that the trend manifested by these outside "positive". "No one showed himself strongly opposed, but also no one threw himself to the ground to die of love for her," she summarized.
This Thursday, the mayor said that the goal is to prevent the "tourism does not assume the same proportions as they had in Barcelona and in Mouraria, in Lisbon". The capital of catalonia, it will be recalled, approved last week, after wide discussion, the measures of restriction on the licensing of new hotels in the centre of the city, even though some of the units in operation shut down. One radical measure taken when it was realized the pressure that the sector, with about 30 million annual visitors that fuel the whole industry of tourist accommodation (including apartments legal and illegal), puts on the everyday life and the infrastructure and services of a city of 1.6 million inhabitants.
In the Harbor, and even in Lisbon, the consequences of the increase of tourism does not come close even to what happens in Barcelona, but the pressure on the real estate sector, with the first signs of the transfer of the residential buildings for the permanent accommodation of short duration and the increase in the average cost of houses for purchase or lease, did sound the various bells and the country. And, by this, Rui Moreira announced, there is so much, that some day the Port would create a fee, this feature would be used to purchase and rehabilitate houses in the historic area of the city, for example, so as to ensure a supply of permanent housing affordable to households of lesser resources.
for This purpose, more than the application of a any rate, deserves critical of one of the associations of the hospitality industry. Contacted by the PUBLIC, the president of the Associação da Hotelaria de Portugal argues that, if it is to support social housing, a goal that commends it, the more it would be that the county keep the IMI and use part of the revenue for this purpose, instead of creating a new rate. Raúl Martins vinca that the AHP has agreed with the application fees provided that the local authorities apply the funds achieved in the improvement of the spaces frequented by tourists, investment this, he insists, that brings benefits also to the inhabitants of the cities. The PUBLIC tried also, without success, to get a reaction from another association of the sector, the Aphort.
Fixed at 12 of 03/02. The municipality does not provide for a new descent of the IMI to compensate for the hospitality by the new rate, as I read before, but considers this, yes, that reductions approved this mandate has already offset the sector by the new expenditure that may come to bear with the tourist tax.
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