Barcelona tourist tax hike

Catalonia’s parliament approved Ley 2/2026 — published in the BOE as BOE‑A‑2026‑6642 — which rewrites the Impuesto sobre las Estancias and creates a specific fee to cover the service of managing municipal surcharges; the reforms were published in March and took effect on 1 April 2026. (boe.es) Barcelona’s implementation combines the new Generalitat rates with a municipal recargo: the regional portion for five‑star hotels rises from €3.50 to €7 and the City Council has increased its surcharge from €4 to €5, producing combined totals such as €12 for top‑category stays, with the municipal surcharge scheduled to climb €1 per year to a €8 cap by 2029. (ajuntament.barcelona.cat) The law fixes how revenue must be used — 25% is earmarked for Generalitat housing policies and 75% goes to a Fund for the Promotion of Tourism managed with local authorities — and regional authorities say the change should roughly double current receipts from about €100 million to around €200 million annually. (ajuntament.barcelona.cat (elpais.com) Trade bodies and employer groups voiced unified opposition: Pimec and Foment del Treball joined accommodation employers in a joint “total and unanimous rejection” of the hike, and the Barcelona hotel guild warned the rise would damage the sector’s competitiveness. (en.ara.cat (totbarcelona.cat) Industry calculations cited by hotel groups put example totals — including the municipal recargo — at roughly €12.1 per person per night for five‑star hotels and about €8.14 for four‑star rooms, figures the sector uses to compare Barcelona’s new burden with cities such as Paris and Rome. (cronicaglobal.elespanol.com) The reform also creates a new charge to reimburse municipalities for collecting the recargo and explicitly lets other towns introduce their own local surcharges (with flexibility by zone and season), extending the law’s scope beyond Barcelona. (boe.es (net2rent.com)