The Tourist Federation of Lanzarote has opposed the idea of a tourist tax, which it claims would be “inefficient”.
The federation, along with similar organisations on other islands, issued a joint statement in response to the Socialist party’s motion to introduce a tax on stays on the islands, saying “This will not reduce the amount of visitors and will be an underserved punishment for tourism, as has been observed everywhere where the measure has been introduced. It will only reduce the competitiveness of the destination.”
In response to the idea that the tax would raise €250 million a year, the federations said, “The Canaries does not have a problem with raising money; the problem is managing existing resources better.”
The federation also warned that applying a tax that only applied to non-residents of the islands may be “legally dubious” under EU anti-discrimination laws.