“Tourist tax” cost Balearics money - Matas

THE leader of the Balearic Government, Jaume Matas, said yesterday that, when the controversial “tourist tax” was in force in the Balearics, nearly a million tourists holidayed in other destinations costing the islands millions of euros in lost revenue and an estimated 20 times the amount raised by the tax. Matas made this statement during a conference in Madrid entitled “Environmental taxation and tourism: the Balearic experience”.
This conference is part of the third Forum for Economy and Sustainability, organised by the Santander Central Hispano Foundation.
In his speech, he said that it is useful to start a “serious process of revision” of the autonomous regions' lack of financial independence to act, when necessary, for the “environmental peculiarities of each one, including the problems of being an island laid down in the Spanish Constitution”. Matas said that “prudence” should be the “guideline for action” in any financial measure which is introduced in the tourist sector.