The tourist tax

I sincerely doubt that there will be a mass exodus of tourists next summer as a direct result of the tourist tax which will be introduced on July 1 this year. At the end of the day we are talking pennies rather than hundreds of pounds but at the same time I do believe that the local ministry for tourism should underline the fact that the money will be used to improve tourist resorts and not spent on the wages of civil servants or other unrelated tourism projects. Now, granted, no-one likes paying taxes, especially in a foreign country which you have selected for your holiday. In other words you are paying tax because you have spent 10 days on holiday here: a bit mean but tourist resorts across Europe are now introducing similar surcharges. Properly spent the between 50 and 80 million euros which will be raised through the tax could really make a difference. Some of the problems in the resorts could be rapidly resolved. A part of the tourist tax cash could also be used to fund a Balearic Island promotion campaign underlining the merits of coming to the islands during the winter months. At the moment there is a backlash against the tax in the foreign media. The local ministry for tourism needs to act fast and give its reason for introducing the tourist tax before damage is done to our principal industry. I think the local ministry for tourism will weather the tourist tax storm but they need to react rather than just sit back and wait. A big backlash is bad news for the islands.