Majorca could be “well on its way” to introducing a tax for UK tourists, it is feared. But the Chief Executive of the Travel Association (ABTA), Mark Tanzer, who lives in the European Union claimed that while the tax could fund improved tourism infrastructure, it may drive Brits away.
The Majorca Daily Bulletin asked: “At the recent ABTA convention a number of key players criticised tourist taxes in general. Are extra taxes the solution to some of the problems destinations like Mallorca face or are there others solutions to resolving the potential imbalance?”
He told the outlet: “It depends on what the taxes are used for. The comments made at the convention were we’re not against tourism taxes per se, it’s just that we’d like to see them applied to the kind of purposes we’ve talked about.
READ MORE Met Office says snow could hit UK within days and explains where’s set for flurries
“Either investing in better tourism infrastructure or measures which reduce the strain on the domestic systems rather than going into general taxation as just another tax. Tourism is an efficient market, there’s a lot of choice and people are very price aware.
“You’ve got all the options on the internet, you can easily see what the costs are and the danger is you put the taxes on and the customers head somewhere else, and we don’t want that. We want them to enjoy Mallorca, enjoy Spain, so it’s more a case of how do you use those taxes to reinvest in making the proposition better not just for the guests and visitors but for the residents, which we would like to see.”
Responding, a local said: “Yu and the leaders of the tourism industry, including ABTA are hiding your heads in the sand and trying to blame others for the problems we have. Clearly you haven’t listened, or you don’t understand the complaints that are coming from many of the local people. It seems quite disrespectful to call the recent protests and their issues “idiotic”.
“In this article ABTA claiming Mallorca is “well on track to solving all the issues” is a totally statement – they’ve barely implemented anything, theres lots of research and ideas circulating in lical government, they havent yet started to redress the major imbalances tgat have become apparent after so many years of rampant tourist growth under the mantra that more tourists can only be good for the island.”
This post was originally published on here
