Dear Sir,
With regard to your story that hotels will pay the tourist tax out of their profits, I would like to point out that not all hotels are multinationals with lots of spare cash. There are hundreds of small, often family-run hotels and agroturismos that will also have to apply the tourist tax. In our case, we set our rates last year and will therefore have to absorb the cost. We could not put up our rates by “between 5 and 20%”, partly due to the increased competition from the hundreds of properties that have now appeared on websites, places that presumably will not have to charge the tax.
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I am following the debate about tourist tax and 'unfair competition' from illegal holiday lets from the UK with some interest and would like to add my thoughts as a frequent visitor to Majorca. At the moment the tourist tax is invisible in the UK. No-one I speak to has even heard of it so it's not surprising that it's not impacted on bookings. The continual references to illegal holidays by hoteliers is quite (I'm struggling to find the word) naive. Business is about competition. I understand there an issue with some self catering properties being unlicensed but unfair competition? I would NEVER stay in one of the big hotels on Majorca for a couple of weeks. Maybe for a weekend but even then it would more likely be a small boutique/finca. The delight of the Balearics is the variety of sel catering properties with the options to shop for food and eat out when on holiday. (And in doing so contribute to the islands economy) I am just starting to feel ever so slightly unwelcome as a holidaymaker from reading the Bulletin.