Representatives of various business groups linked to tourism have coincided this Monday in calling on the Government of the Principality to withdraw the draft Law of the Principality of Asturias on the tax on tourist stays, currently being processed in the General Junta of the Principality of Asturias.
The appearances took place in the Asturian Parliament, where spokespeople from different associations have requested not only the withdrawal of the text, but also the opening of a "true" process of dialogue with the sector and with the town councils that would be affected by the measure.
The president of Otea Hostelería y Turismo en Asturias, Javier Martínez, has requested a thorough analysis of the possible economic consequences of the tourist tax before considering its entry into force in Asturias, emphasizing that "the capacity to raise revenue does not constitute, for us, a sufficient justification" to move the regulation forward.
Martínez has warned of the problems, in his view, that the voluntary application of the tax by the municipalities would generate, since "the possibility that some municipalities set the surcharge and others do not can generate differences in taxation among nearby establishments, which compete for the same customers and form part of the same tourist environment". The Otea official has reiterated that this situation "can introduce additional difficulties in trade".
The business leader has stressed that any decision that the town councils make regarding the surcharge "should be linked to a clear diagnosis of the needs of the destination", given that "municipal voluntariness cannot constitute coordinated tourist planning nor a rigorous evolution of the economic and territorial effects of the measure".
Along the same lines, he has defended that "it is not enough to identify the possible collection benefits; it is also necessary to assess the costs and effects that the measure may produce on the economic activity itself".
The executive vice president of Otea, Fernando Corral, has recalled that in other communities, such as Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, there are already tax figures related to tourism, but he has pointed out that their models present particularities that must be analyzed in detail. He has said that in Catalonia the amounts depend on the type of establishment and its location, with municipal surcharges and specific rules for advance bookings, while in the Balearic Islands the tax has a earmarked, final-purpose character and is directed to a fund for sustainable tourism.
Corral stressed that "they are models developed in their own tourism contexts and whose experience can provide lessons, but that does not constitute a sufficient justification to reproduce them in Asturias without first studying our reality".
The Otea representative added that "the issue is not only how much is charged per stay, but how that cost affects the final price, the decision to travel, and the length of the stay, and the capacity of establishments to compete, especially in price-sensitive segments", underscoring the possible economic repercussions that, according to the sector, could be brought about by the creation of a tourism tax.
For his part, the coordinator of the Tourism Board of the Federación Asturiana de Empresarios (FADE), Julio Bobes, has called into question in a parliamentary commission the viability of the tourism tax in Asturias, arguing that "the project does not identify in a concrete way which territories suffer those pressures, which public services are affected, what additional costs are generated, or what indicators make it possible to measure the magnitude of the phenomenon".
Bobes has gone deeper into the lack of a coherent sequence in drafting the rule, by pointing out that "one thing is to say that impacts associated with tourism may exist, and another very different thing is to show what those impacts are, where they occur, with what intensity, and what specific measures are needed to address them", and he has criticized that "it gives the impression that the tax instrument has been started with without adequately considering the earlier phases".
The spokesperson for FADE has expressed his doubts about the real capacity of the tax to solve the problems that are invoked, arguing that "it seems that by putting in a tourist tax we are going to solve the problems of the entire community", when specific budget items already exist for each purpose and tourism is only one of the multiple cross-cutting elements that affect them. He has also warned that "the question of what indicators would make it possible to conclude within five years that this tax has fulfilled its purpose still has no answer".
Bobes has emphasized the need to incorporate monitoring and accountability tools, pointing out that "it would be desirable for the rule to include mechanisms that would make it possible to know annually how much is collected, what specific actions it invests in, what results those actions produce, and what indicators make it possible to assess its efficiency", and he has stressed that "transparency cannot be limited to collecting; it must also reach the destination and the evaluation of resources".
The vice president of the Cluster Turismo Rural, Ana Belén Soberón, has flatly rejected the project for a tourist tax in the Principality. "Does it make sense to establish a new economic burden on an activity that Asturias legislation itself recognizes as strategic for maintaining population and generating opportunities in rural areas? Our response is unequivocal: No," she has stated.
Soberón has warned that the proposal clashes with the real structure of tourism in Asturias, made up largely of small accommodations, self-employed workers and family businesses with limited resources, without large administrative departments and with a very limited capacity to assume new economic burdens and additional procedures.
The representative of rural tourism has questioned the consistency of the approach by remarking that "it is difficult to understand that, while demand is being subsidized to achieve more stays, at the same time a tax is proposed that makes those same stays more expensive".
She has also highlighted that the initiative is at odds with the law on demographic development, which "establishes the need to promote economic activity, employment and opportunities in the territories" and "expressly identifies tourism as one of the sectors capable of contributing to these objectives".
He has regretted that "reports on demographic impact have not been provided". He has requested that the project be withdrawn and that a true process of dialogue be opened with the sector and with the municipalities affected", emphasizing that "in many rural councils, tourist accommodation is not simply a business; it is an opportunity for employment, an activity that keeps the area alive, and another reason for people to be able to continue living in the towns.