Hoteltur reveals that the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, and Jaume Collboni, mayor of the Catalan capital, have already reached an agreement that foresees the elimination of the limit on the municipal tourist surcharge for cruise passengers who stay in the city for up to 12 hours.

“A substantially higher tax rate will help us control demand for cruises with stopovers lasting less than 12 hours, which are the ones that make the most intensive use of the city and create the most tension in public spaces,” says Jaume Collboni, Mayor of Barcelona.

However, this change will still need to be specified in the next budget proposal, especially since no figure has yet been set for short stopovers.

In addition to the increase in tourist tax for cruise passengers staying up to 12 hours in the city, the authorities are also open to a broader debate on tourist taxation in general in Barcelona, ​​which should take place as part of the negotiations on the next budgets.

Jaume Collboni explains the intention to increase this rate by the fact that Barcelona received 1.6 million cruise ship visitors last year and has new growth prospects for 2024, to figures that, according to the mayor, are “not acceptable” for the city, so the increase in the rate will seek to prevent this growth.

“We argue that Barcelona has to be a base port for cruises and we have to limit cruise stopover activity very, very much”, adds the mayor of Barcelona.

In the first half of 2024, the port of Barcelona recorded 323 cruise ship calls, 83% of which were based in Barcelona, ​​compared to 79% recorded in the whole of 2023.