Barcelona to increase cruise ship day-trip passenger tourist tax

City Mayor outlines future plan to help combat overtourism

Cruise lines face the prospect of paying a higher tax per passenger for making calls in Barcelona in the latest initiative to curb overtourism in the Catalan cruise hub. 

The Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, plans to increase the tourist tax levied on ship passengers who spend less than 12 hours in the city. Collboni said that the current levy of €7 per day would be raised, but he would not confirm by how much.

Encouraging longer stays, overnight visitors in Barcelona currently pay tourist tax of €4 per person, per night.

More than 1,100 cruise ship calls are scheduled in the port of Barcelona this year, with as many as five ships per day in summer peak periods.  

Collboni said in an interview published in Spanish newspaper El Pais: “In the case of cruise ship passengers who do not stay overnight, there is an intensive use of public space without any benefit for the city and a sensation of occupation and of saturation. We want the kind of tourism that is respectful toward the destination.”

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He added that the idea of the rise was not to deter cruise visitors but to ensure they paid their way and generated revenue that could be invested in projects.

The money would go toward investment in 15 areas of the city that have been identified as having high foot traffic, as well as for social projects such as installing air conditioning in schools. The plan will have to be agreed with the Catalan regional government before being imposed.

“I would like Barcelona to be an example of a city that has managed to have tourism and that the tourism is not in the detriment of the rights of the city, the idea that Barcelona is for the people of Barcelona,” Collboni said.

He said tourist flat rentals and short cruise stopovers were causing problems for the city and for its pursuit of quality tourism.

“When it comes to a choice between tourists using housing and the right to housing, we’ve decided to put the right to housing in Barcelona first,” Collboni said. “We want a tourism that respects its destination.”

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