The Lanzarote Tourism Federation (FTL) considers "ineffective" the bill presented last Wednesday by the Socialist Parliamentary Group to implement a tax on tourist stays in the Canary Islands, a measure that, according to the businessmen, "will not reduce the number of visitors and that represents an unjustified punishment to tourism, as has been demonstrated in all the territories in which said tax has been applied, which will only reduce the competitiveness of the destination."
The statement has also been endorsed by the Association of Tourism Entrepreneurs of Fuerteventura (Asofuer); the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Entrepreneurs of Las Palmas (FEHT); and the Hotel and Extra-hotel Association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro (Ashotel).
Regarding the collection expected to be obtained with this new tax, 250 million annually according to the socialist proposal, the employers insist on the idea that "the Canary Islands do not have financing problems, but rather to better manage the resources it has, given that it does not even execute all the taxes generated by tourism activity, which amounted to more than 3,400 million annually in 2023."
A new tax on overnight stays, they consider, "is not useful as a measure to manage tourist flows, nor to address the real infrastructure deficits that the archipelago suffers and that have not responded to the significant increase in population in the last 25 years."
Furthermore, they warn, "it would generate a clear situation of double taxation on tourism activity in the islands, when it is precisely the sector of the economy that contributes the most to public revenues via taxes."
Likewise, they consider of "very doubtful legality the possibility that this tax can only be charged to visitors who do not reside in the Canary Islands, since European regulations do not allow any discriminatory measure according to the residence of the EU citizen."
The employers do share, however, "the application of fees for visiting the natural treasures of the islands, as is already applied in some spaces."
A tax with a specific purpose, the employers consider, "can even have a positive impact on the generation of employment and on the improvement of cleaning, security and maintenance services in these places, and would be useful accompanied by other measures to correctly manage the flow of visitors, measure the impact on natural spaces and guarantee their optimal state of conservation."
Tourism in the Canary Islands today moves the aforementioned 35.5% of the wealth (GDP) of the islands, generates 40% of direct employment and in taxes translates into revenues of 3,400 million euros.
With that figure, the statement highlights, "you can pay the entire Canarian budget for Education for this 2024 (2,373 million), all social services (711 million), industry and energy (139 million) and access to housing and promotion of construction (122) or more than 80% of the total Health budget (4,108 million)."