The Portugal News reports that The President of the Regional Government, Miguel Albuquerque has admitted that he is studying the application of a tourist tax in the region.
He stated that the application of the tourist tax is not part of the current governance program, since he understood at the time that Madeira needed “to recover the tourism sector”.
“Right now, we have growth and this will be discussed, within the framework of the program that I will present”, he said.
“It is an issue that I am willing to consider and discuss, now we need to understand that any fee is a tax and my policy has been the opposite, it has been to reduce taxes, remove fees and develop money for society ”, he reinforced
This year’s regional legislative elections have not yet been scheduled by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, but must take place in September or October.
The tourist tax is a fee charged to all guests staying in tourist or local accommodation (also known as “AL” or “Alojamento Local”) developments in cities where the tax is in effect. Basically, an extra amount is charged, per night and person, on top of the room rate. The tax first started in Lisbon and is currently applied on overnight stays in the following Portuguese municipalities:
- Lisbon
- Cascais
- Sintra
- Vila Nova de Gaia
- Mafra
- Vila Real de Santo António
- PortimãoSanta Cruz (Madeira)
- Óbidos
The goal of this overnight stay tax is to raise funds so that the municipality can invest in infrastructures that support tourism in the city,
There’s been talk of this for years. It’d be helpful if they gave some figures of the likely amount.
Stick your tourist tax and lower the price of local accommodation it is very expensive greedy fools.
I was going to say too little information to really comment yet but you have obviously thought long and hard.
Mir fällt auf, dass Touristen, welche Madeira bereisen möchten, zunächst schon bei den Flugpreisen belastet werden. Es kann doch nicht rechtens sein, dass Flüge, mit längerer Flugzeit und doppelt so weiten Strecken, preisgünstiger sind als Flüge nach Madeira! Kurtaxe wird eigentlich erhoben, wenn es auch Kurzentren und/oder entsprechende Kurmöglichkeiten gibt. Diese müssten aber erst einmal geschaffen werden.
Durch die Touristen wird die Wirtschaft doch erheblich angekurbelt und für die Einwohner von Madeira werden Arbeitsplätze und Einnahmemöglichkeiten geschaffen, womit wieder der Konsum erhöht wird und so weiter und so weiter. Wieso sollen nun noch Gelder gesammelt werden, um diese wieder über eine weitere Organisation, welche Kosten produziert, zu verteilen?
The above translates as
“It strikes me that tourists who want to travel to Madeira are initially charged with the flight prices. It can’t be right that flights, with longer flight times and twice the distance, are cheaper than flights to Madeira! Tourist tax is actually charged if there are also spa centers and/or corresponding spa facilities. But these would have to be created first.
The economy is boosted considerably by the tourists and jobs and income opportunities are created for the inhabitants of Madeira, which increases consumption again and so on and so on. Why should money still be collected in order to distribute it again via another organization that produces costs?”
Thank you for that Maurice.
Flight prices are affected by many things, time of year, state of economy, fuel prices, it’s a market priced service. As to spas and facilities these are part of your hotel bill. You don’t want to pay for spa facilities, you visit a hotel without a spa. A direct tourist tax, which I don’t favour, is a tax rather than part of your hotel experience. I assume a bedroom tax would be the same for a two star as a four.
Scheduled Flights to Madeira, excluding package tour flights are now a horrible price.
Just paid £300 inc bags for return flight, two persons next week. £268 Dec Jan return, Christmas and New Year, How horrible is that?
Tourists don’t like paying additional tax to the governments of countries they are visiting and spending their hard earned money with, when they have already been taxed on their income several times in their own country.
It sends the wrong message, tourism is critical to Madeira and needs to be protected and promoted in a positive manner.