Excerpt from nation.cymru
With direct flights connecting Cardiff with Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, the Balearic Islands are consistently among the most popular destinations for Welsh tourists.
Tens of thousands travel each year to enjoy clear blue waters, some of Gaudi’s finest architecture or the famous clubbing scene – and, in summer, each of them pay a ‘Sustainable Tourism Tax’ of between €1 and €4 a night.
Spain is among 19 EU member states where tourists pay an occupancy tax but the Balearic Islands used its powers as an autonomous community to introduce its own policy in 2016, following the election of a left-wing government a year earlier.
At the time, the tourism association ABTA warned it could end up “driving away tourists from the islands” and it was cited in the Senedd as a cautionary tale against the introduction of a similar policy in Wales.
The warnings were founded on the Islands’ short-lived experiment with a tourism tax at the start of the millennium which had reduced visitor numbers.
But, six years after the revival of the tax, there has been no drop-off in tourism and it has raised more than €250 million for environmental, social and cultural projects on the islands.
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