Cascais want to charge 1.5 euro to tourists – Daily News – Lisbon

Association of Tourism, Cascais has approved new contribution that should yield 1,8 million. Hoteliers fear leak tourists

The news that the Association of Tourism in Cascais (ATC) will propose to the city council the implementation of a tourist tax fell like a bomb in the hotels of the region. Of the 32 units in the county, 26 have already showed against charging any fee to the tourists and among the more than 600 accommodation places, 90% also reject the initiative.

“The proposal of the Tourism Association does not have the support of the sector,” says the source chain to the DN/Money Live, stressing that he was sent a “call for an extraordinary general meeting, days before, but not detalhavam the molds of this application”. In addition, “the sector has not been heard nor have they been carried out preparatory studies on its impact”, said another source.

hoteliers fear that they will lose customers to municipalities contiguous – Oeiras and Sintra – where there is no fee, especially because the design of the proposal points to the charge of 1.5 euros per tourist, per night, up to a maximum of five nights.

The malaise is far from to stay here: it is that the president of the board of the Tourism Association of Cascais, the body which launched the proposal, Carlos Carreiras, also he president of the chamber, which may mean that there will be a via verde to the scenario now being proposed to be quickly put into practice.

it is Not just. When Lisbon decided to move forward with this charge, as well as do several cities, such as Barcelona or Venice, Careers was against this application. “Each case is unique and must be analyzed as such. A municipality that is living a moment of strong attraction of tourism investment obviously can not put a rate like this, it asserted itself to the DN/Live Money in November of 2014, when the Lisbon closed the design of this collection.

Now, Cascais recorded in the past year the best ever result in the number of overnight stays, guests, and the average price per room, with almost 500 thousand guests registered. The DN/Live Cash tried to listen to the president of the Chamber of Cascais, but there was no reply.

The expectation of the Holidays Cascais is able to raise 1.8 million euros of additional revenue, which will revert to the coffers city. Among the hoteliers of the city, no one knows explain if a fund will be created for tourist development, the likeness of that which arose in Lisbon as a way to achieve consensus on the sector. This is one of the items that Raul Ribeiro, president of the Association of Directors of Hotel, want to see explained, and work with other agencies to understand what will be the impact of the fee on the revenue and on the demand of the tourists.

The Regional Association of Hoteliers of the Costa do Estoril, Sintra, Mafra and Oeiras (ARHCESMO) did you follow yesterday a circular in which promises to go informing their members about the development of the case. According to the Publituris, the ARHCESMO is even considering leaving the Association of Tourism in Cascais.

José Gomes Ferreira, which was not possible to contact, said to this publication that any decision of the ARHCESMO will depend on “the future behavior of the ATC, once we admit that those responsible for the initiative have been aware of the error that is take forward a proposal of this nature without obtaining the agreement of all who represent the tourist accommodation in the municipality of Cascais, in particular the hospitality industry”. And promises to convene a new general meeting of the Association of Tourism of Cascais to return to the issue of the tourist tax.