Holiday rentals warn that a tourist tax in Andalusia could make holidays more expensive

The debate over a possible tourist tax in Andalusia has once again brought two increasingly important issues for major destinations into focus: how to finance the additional costs created by large numbers of visitors, and whether introducing new charges could ultimately make holidays more expensive.

The Association of Professionals of Tourist Homes and Apartments in Andalusia (AVVAPro) has warned that a tax on tourist stays could be passed on to travellers through higher accommodation prices, potentially affecting families and groups looking for more affordable options.

The association does not oppose discussing how municipalities facing high tourism pressure should be financed, but argues that any new tax should be assessed according to criteria including proportionality, affordability, transparency and equal treatment across different types of accommodation.

Its position comes as the possibility of a tourist tax continues to form part of the political debate in Andalusia.

One in three people in Spain could not afford a week’s holiday

One of AVVAPro’s main arguments concerns households’ ability to afford travel.

The association highlights that 33.4% of Spain’s population could not afford a one-week holiday away from home in 2024.

The figure is above the European Union average. According to Eurostat, 27% of people aged 16 and over in the EU were unable to afford a one-week annual holiday away from home in 2024.

For AVVAPro, this means price should also form part of the discussion about sustainable tourism.

The debate, it argues, should not focus only on how much a tourist tax could raise or how that money would later be spent, but also on how much more visitors might ultimately have to pay.

Would a tourist tax really make holidays more expensive?

This is at the heart of the association’s argument: if accommodation providers face a new charge for each stay, some or all of that cost could potentially be passed on to the guest.

The actual impact would depend on how the tax was designed, its amount, possible exemptions and who was legally responsible for paying it.

For now, it would be premature to calculate exactly how much a holiday in Andalusia could increase in price, as the current debate does not amount to a single regional tax with a fixed rate already approved.

AVVAPro is asking for any future proposal to assess that impact first and recognise that not all tourists travel with the same budget.

For a couple taking a two-night city break, a small daily charge might have a relatively limited effect. For a large family staying for one or two weeks, however, the accumulated cost could be considerably higher.

Holiday rentals highlight their role for families and groups

The association also points to the type of traveller who frequently chooses tourist apartments and holiday homes.

These properties do not compete solely on price. Their layout can provide several bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and shared spaces, features that can be particularly useful for families with children, groups of friends and travellers staying for longer periods.

Having access to a kitchen, for example, can reduce the number of meals that need to be eaten in restaurants and make it easier to manage a holiday budget.

A property with several bedrooms can also be more practical for a group than booking several separate hotel rooms.

For this reason, AVVAPro believes that any new tourism tax should take different travel profiles into account rather than assuming all visitors use accommodation in the same way.

AVVAPro calls for equal rules across different types of accommodation

Another major point in the association’s position is equal treatment.

AVVAPro argues that, if a tax on overnight stays is eventually introduced, its design should avoid unjustified differences between hotels, tourist apartments and holiday rental properties.

This is not the first time the organisation has taken this position.

In previous debates over a possible tourist tax, the association has already argued that any charge should be agreed between public authorities and representatives of the tourism sector and applied fairly across different forms of accommodation.

It has also said that, if a tax is introduced, the way the money is spent should be transparent so visitors and businesses can see which public services or projects are being financed.

Housing also enters the debate

The discussion over tourism taxation inevitably overlaps with another major issue in destinations experiencing strong visitor demand: access to housing.

Málaga and other Andalusian destinations have spent years debating the role of holiday rentals in residential markets where prices have risen sharply.

AVVAPro rejects the idea that the housing problem can mainly be solved by increasing taxes or financial burdens on tourist accommodation.

According to the association, the housing shortage requires action on structural issues such as building more homes, making land available, providing legal certainty and increasing residential supply.

Its argument is that charging more for a tourist stay does not automatically create new long-term rental homes.

This remains one of the most disputed elements of the wider debate. Public authorities, neighbourhood groups and tourism representatives continue to hold different views on the relationship between holiday rentals, residential supply and housing prices.

What would a tourist tax be used for?

Tourist taxes already exist in a number of European and Spanish destinations and are generally designed to generate additional income from visitors to help finance certain public services or tourism-related projects.

In destinations receiving millions of tourists, the number of people using cleaning services, public transport, security, beaches, streets and waste collection each day can be far higher than the registered resident population.

This is one of the main arguments in favour of such charges: that visitors should also contribute towards the additional costs created by tourism activity.

AVVAPro accepts that highly visited municipalities may need more resources, but questions whether creating a new tax is necessarily the only way to provide them.

The association proposes another option: redistributing existing tax revenue

AVVAPro believes that, before creating an additional charge, authorities should consider how the tax revenue already generated by tourism is distributed.

Visitors do not contribute only through accommodation. During a holiday they also generate tax revenue through spending in restaurants, shops, leisure activities, transport and other services.

The association argues that part of these existing resources could be redistributed to municipalities dealing with particularly high levels of tourism activity.

The question it raises is therefore whether it is preferable to introduce a specific charge paid directly by visitors, or to create mechanisms allowing destinations to receive a greater share of the tax revenue already generated by the tourism economy.

Price is becoming another factor in tourism competitiveness

The debate also comes at a time when travel remains financially out of reach for a significant part of the population.

The fact that 27% of Europeans could not afford a one-week holiday in 2024 shows that travelling remains difficult for millions of people despite the strong recovery of the tourism industry.

For destinations such as Andalusia and the Costa del Sol, this adds another factor to the discussion about competitiveness.

Destinations do not compete only through beaches, climate, heritage, food or flight connections. They also compete through the total cost visitors face during their stay.

Accommodation, flights, restaurants, transport and activities all contribute to that budget, and any new charge adds to the final cost of the trip.

The key question is whether that increase would be small enough not to affect travel decisions or whether it could have a greater impact on visitors with tighter budgets.

Families and saturated destinations: the two sides of the debate

There is unlikely to be a simple answer to the tourist tax discussion.

From the perspective of highly visited municipalities, tourism growth means greater demand for maintenance, cleaning, security and management of public spaces.

From the tourism industry’s perspective, continuously increasing costs could reduce competitiveness or ultimately be passed on to consumers.

And from residents’ perspective, there is a third issue: ensuring that tourism success benefits the city without reducing quality of life or making access to housing even more difficult.

These competing interests help explain why AVVAPro is calling for any future measure to be based on agreement between public authorities, businesses, workers and representatives of the different accommodation sectors.

What AVVAPro says about a possible tourist tax

🏠 Accommodation: holiday rentals are particularly useful for families, groups and longer stays.
💶 Price: the association warns that a new charge could ultimately be passed on to guests.
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Affordability: AVVAPro points to the fact that 33.4% of people in Spain could not afford a week’s holiday away from home in 2024.
⚖️ Equal treatment: it wants any tax to apply fairly across different types of accommodation.
🏘️ Housing: the association argues that the housing crisis requires more supply, available land and construction capacity, and that a tourist tax alone will not solve it.
🏛️ Municipalities: it acknowledges that destinations under heavy tourism pressure may need more resources, but wants alternative funding models to be considered.
🤝 Consensus: it is calling for any potential tax to be negotiated with the tourism sector before being introduced.

The debate therefore goes far beyond deciding whether a visitor should pay a few extra euros during a stay. Andalusia will have to decide how to finance the impact of receiving millions of tourists without losing competitiveness, how those resources should be distributed and to what extent holiday affordability for families should also be protected.

AVVAPro’s position can be consulted on the official website of the Association of Professionals of Tourist Homes and Apartments in Andalusia, while the holiday affordability figures come from Eurostat, the European Union’s official statistical office.