The senator of the PSOE in the Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena, gave his response yesterday to those involved in the tourism sector who argue that a tourist tax could lead some holidaymakers to choose a different destination than the Canary Islands, by asking them if they truly believe that a charge of one to three euros per night would really have that effect.
"Do they honestly believe that a tourist who spends an average of 1,500 euros during their holiday will stop coming because, for example, we charge them 27 euros more when they arrive at the hotel?" he asks.
Valbuena responded with this even though the PSOE decided not to approve a tourist tax during the last administration, arguing that it was not the time to burden the sector with the tax when it was recovering from the pandemic.
Now, with tourist arrivals and revenue figures in the Canary Islands reaching or even surpassing historical records, it has introduced an initiative in the Canary Islands Parliament for its implementation.
Valbuena said that, according to his calculations, with twelve million tourists per year and an average stay of nine nights for each of them, the Canary Islands could obtain 108 million euros with the tourist tax if it taxes each night at one euro, or 324 million euros if it charges three euros a day.
