The Council of Olhão should start applying a tourist tax of two euros per night during the high season in the coming days, hoping to collect up to 300 thousand euros per year, the mayor of the municipality told Lusa.
“The tourist tax is a contribution that tourists leave in the territory to minimize their footprint”, summarized to the Lusa agency the mayor, António Miguel Pina, who expects to receive an annual revenue with the measure of “between 250 and 300 thousand euros ”.
The measure, approved by the municipality in April, should be published in the next few days in the Diário da República, and will then take effect, making Olhão the third municipality in the Algarve to apply a tourist tax, after Vila Real de Santo António and Faro.
The value of the fee will be two euros during the high season and one euro in the low season (from November 1st to March 31st). Children under 16 and stays longer than five nights are exempt, which means that each tourist will pay a maximum of 10 euros.
António Miguel Pina explained that this decision has to do with the profile of the tourist who usually seeks the county, in most cases, families with children.
The Algarve Intermunicipal Community (AMAL) had already approved the application of an identical tourist tax of two euros, taking into account proposals made by the two largest hotel associations in the region and the Algarve Tourism Board (RTA).
The Câmara de Olhão intends to use 50% of the revenues with the new fee to “minimize the effects of tourist pressure, namely in cleaning and increasing security”.
The also president of AMAL advances that the municipality is “available” to allocate 10% of the revenue from the fee to the promotion of tourism in the Algarve and 10% for other projects within the association that represents the 16 municipalities in the district of Faro.
In the southernmost region of Portugal, the tourist tax is currently only applied in the municipalities of Faro and, in different ways, in Vila Real de Santo António.
The Vila Real de Santo António Chamber was the first to introduce the fee, in 2018, with the aim of maintaining municipal equipment and infrastructure for tourists and the resident population, or helping to finance participation in international fairs for the promotion of the municipality and its potentialities.
With a value of one euro per guest and overnight stay in hotels, villages and tourist apartments, guesthouses and agritourism and in local accommodation, and 50 cents per camper, per day, in camping and caravan parks or in service areas of motorhomes, the rate remained in force even during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Faro applied the measure in 2019, following the guidelines that were issued by AMAL at the time, but had to suspend it during the following two years, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2022, the measure of 1,5 euros per night was once again reintroduced, only between March and October, for a maximum period of seven nights for each stay of guests aged 13 years or over.
Comments