Vila Real de Santo António council is to demand a tourist tax as from January next year, according to the mayor who would have imposed the tax this year, but for the complaints of hoteliers.
Mayor Luís Gomes announced the delay during the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding for the creation of the Municipal Strategic Council for Tourism, a new body which will include representatives from the hotel and real estate sectors as well as from the council.
The council will run the controversial scheme and will monitor incoming funds which will be ‘reinvested in tourism.’
The start date for the €1 per person per night tourist tax initially was to be before the 2016 summer season but the mayor claims the local authority is "sensitive to arguments from hoteliers" that starting the tax in the middle of a season would create problems as many holiday bookings and prices are agreed in advance.
The council also accepted another suggestion that would encourage off-season tourism, namely that the tax rate reduces by 50% for visitors aged over 60, outside the summer months.
The mayor said the money collected has "a priority or a single purpose, which is to reinvest this money in the sector, i.e. in tourist activities, in tourism promotion and in the financing of some events that take place and have to be self-sustaining."
"The decision on the allocation of these funds will not be made by the municipal executive alone, but in a joint process," said the mayor.
At the ceremony held in Manta Rota, a cooperation agreement between Vila Real de Santo António and Algarve Tourism was signed to open a municipal tourist information office next to Manta Rota beach.
Over in Monte Gordo, parking meters started operation on Wednesday covering several streets in the town centre and will continue until September 15th.
According to the VRSA council, this measure "will generate a higher turnover of car-parking spaces and will help avoid the excessive parking that currently takes place in high season, giving access to all who visit us."
The charged for car-parking zone is in the tourist and second home areas and applies to 35% of Monte Gordo’s streets.
