Portugal’s French owned airports operator ANA has stated that it will not pay out again to stop Lisbon council charging a per night tourist tax.
This year ANA will end up paying around €4 million to the capital’s council to avoid it imposing the tax which ANA sees as damaging to the tourist trade.
An ANA spokesman said that "For next year, the Council of Lisbon will have to find another solution because ANA will not agree to pay up.”
On March 30th this year, ANA stepped in by agreeing to pay an amount per visitor per night staying in the Lisbon area but in practical terms the correct figure was nearly impossible to define.
The current Socialist Party leader when head of Lisbon council in 2014 said the tax would bring in between €3.6 and €4.4 million in the remaining nine months of 2014 which he claimed would be spent on 'tourist projects in the city.'
ANA then signed a one-off agreement to pay an equivalent fee for each tourist that landed at Lisbon airport.
Lisbon council has rather cheekily included the tourist tax payment from ANA in its 2016 municipal budget and expected €15.7 million from ANA which unsurprisingly has caused the airports operator to say ‘non!’
Lisbon council’s finance committee therefore has announced that the tourist tax will start as from Jan 1st 2016. There will be a €1 fee charged for each tourist per night to a total of €7 per person.
The practicalities involved in collecting this tax will have to be sorted out by the capital’s hoteliers who, unsurprisingly, are not in favour.
Tourists are always welcome in the Algarve of course, a 'tourist tax free' region, unless Faro council's plan to charge a per night tax is passed by the region's mayors.
