“I would like this process to be concluded in December” so that, “if approved, the tourist tax could come into force at the beginning of next year”, said the mayor elected by the CDU, in statements to Lusa news agency.
According to the mayor, the start of the procedure for creating the regulation for the tourist tax applied to overnight stays was approved, by a majority, at the most recent council meeting, held on Wednesday afternoon.
“We will now invite all those who wish to participate to make their contributions, listen to the associations and the Municipal Committee for Economy and Tourism, and we will then draw up a draft regulation based on the contributions”, he stressed.
Pinto de Sá explained that this draft regulation will then be submitted to a council meeting to gather suggestions from the local government and, once “a concrete document” is ready, a period of public discussion will begin.
“After public debate, it will go back to the council and, if approved, will be sent to the municipal assembly, which will meet in December,” he stressed, insisting on the goal of the measure coming into force at the beginning of 2025.
The Alentejo mayor recalled that this decision by the council “is, in practical terms, the resumption of a process” that the municipality had already started in 2019 and that was suspended at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, in mid-2020.
“Now, it is time to take all the documentation” produced by several partners, such as the University of Évora and the Alentejo and Ribatejo Regional Tourism Authority, and “restart the work, naturally updating it,” he said.
Noting that “tourism is a very important component of the local economy,” the mayor considered, however, that tourist pressure “means, for example, a significant increase in waste production and the impact on public space.”
In this sense, he stressed that he intends for the revenues from the collection of the tax to cover the increased costs of the council for waste collection, tourism promotion in the municipality and heritage restoration, among other areas.
“The tourist tax can be used to benefit Évora”, stressed the mayor, stressing that this tariff “will not have any impact on those who live and work in Évora, but only on those who visit the municipality”.
As planned in 2019, “we also now want to provide for the possibility of exemptions”, namely for hospital users or members of sports clubs or non-profit associations who have to spend the night in Évora, he admitted.
Another idea to be debated during the discussion of the regulation, he added, is the possibility of also exempting tourists who stay for more than two or three days, with the aim of encouraging an increase in the average stay in the municipality.
As for the value of the tax, Pinto de Sá recalled that, in 2019, “one euro was targeted” per night and overnight stay, and this time, “a higher value” could be decided, even in line with “a large group of cities that have higher values”.
In 2023 as a whole, the mayor estimated that the municipality of Évora would have almost 700 thousand tourist overnight stays.
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