Popular Spanish holiday resort prepares to impose tourist tax in blow to Britons

The famous Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago de Compostela draws visitors to the city’go de Compostela (Image: Getty) Fed-up regional officials in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, intend to impose a tourist fee as a countermeasure to overwhelming tourism. Santiago de Compostela is a prominent tourist site that is best known as the endpoint of the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago de Compostela. Every year, pilgrims flock to the city’s Baroque cathedral, with 439,000 visiting the city last year. The planned tax will be introduced on hoteliers in Santiago de Compostela beginning in 2025. The suggested fee would be between €0.50 and €2.50 per person. Hoteliers in Santiago de Compostela to face a new tax initiative starting in 2025 (Image: Getty) According to Spanish officials, this tax may produce between €2.5 and €3 million per year for the city, which would then be used to protect the city’s historic centre. Goretti Sanmartn, the freshly elected mayor, inspired the effort. In statements to several Spanish media sites, she declared her goal to change Santiago de Compostela from a tourist destination and theme park to a sustainable tourism destination. Ms Sanmartn said: “We want to enjoy a rich and prosperous tourism sector, but also a comfortable and breathable city.” Ms Sanmartín reiterated that the challenges of dealing with overcrowded tourism in Santiago primarily revolve around increasing “awareness” among the public. She said: “It’s not so much the issue of the number of people who arrive, but of the people’s knowledge of the fact that the basic norms of coexistence must be respected, and respect and care for the heritage must be guaranteed. “It’s more an issue of awareness that we have to address from the very beginning.” The mayor cited a number of challenges, including sanitation, security, and historical heritage management, that would necessitate major financial investment, which would be covered by the tourist fee. She noted that a prior assessment produced during the socialist Xosé Sánchez Bugallo’s mandate suggested a hotel industry tax ranging from 0.50 to 2.50 euros, but that implementation would be deferred until 2025. The research proposed earning a total revenue of 3 million euros to be used for historic centre renovation and budget overruns in cleaning services, among other expenses. The mayor stated that this material would be reviewed within 15 days and presented before to the meeting with the Galician regional administration.