Tourist taxes: Latin American countries where they are applied

02-08-23

If you are traveling this summer, chances are that you will be charged a tourist tax included in the price of your airline ticket or accommodation. The overcrowding of tourists has affected many destinations, which, under pressure from the arrival of visitors, have found it necessary to resort to the implementation of a tourist tax. 

The amount of the fee will depend on the local public bodies in each region, and the revenue is used both to continue promoting the tourist destination and to meet the costs associated with the arrival of tourists (cleaning, security, etc.). In this way, it is the tourists themselves who contribute to the preservation, development and promotion of the destination's infrastructure and tourism activities.

Overcrowding of the destination is one of the main concerns for European tourists today (8.6%), along with rising costs due to inflation (23.7%) and the tourist's personal financial situation (16.9%), according to a survey conducted by the European Travel Commission. To combat this massive arrival of visitors, in 2012 Catalonia was the pioneering autonomous community in Spain to adopt this tax measure, implementing a tax that ranged from 60 cents to 3.5 euros per person per day. Catalonia was followed by the Balearic Islands in 2016, where 131.6 million euros were collected in 2019 alone, and Valencia, where it was approved last year. Other major Spanish cities, such as Valencia, Seville, Malaga or San Sebastian, are studying measures to introduce this tax. 

Ibero-American countries with tourist taxes

In addition to Spain, there are several Ibero-American countries that have also introduced this kind of tax on tourists. One of them is Portugal, where it is applied in 13 municipalities, including two of its main cities -Lisbon and Oporto- and some towns in the Algarve area -Faro, Olhão and Vila Real de Santo António-. There, people over 16 years of age must pay between 1 and 2 euros per night. 

Most of the Caribbean islands also impose a tax on tourists, which is applied either at the hotels or when leaving the country. As for the amount, it ranges from €13 charged by the Bahamas to €45 in Antigua and Barbuda. They are: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Martin, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the Virgin Islands. 

Argentina approved in 2019 a tax on international tourists visiting Buenos Aires, which ranged from $0.5 (tourists staying in 3-star hotels) to $1.5 (tourists staying in 5-star hotels).

Author: Lucía Vázquez Pérez

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