reprinted from the London Daily Telegraph
Eco tax 'unfair'
By Tony
Jefferies British tourists are helping to subsidise Spanish farmers in the Balearic Islands via a controversial "eco tax" introduced in May. The government of the islands - Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera - announced last week that 10 per cent of the pounds 22 million collected so far by the tax, which is designed to offset the negative impact on the environment of mass tourism, will go to agricultural aid in this financial year. The same percentage has been earmarked for farmers for the next two years. Environmentally-friendly schemes and agricultural training centres will benefit, but most of the windfall will go towards replanting fruit trees. The bulk of the money raised through the tax will be used to improve areas affected by tourism. Conservation, heritage and cultural schemes will also be developed. The tax raises between one and two euros a night from every foreigner using tourist accommodation in the Balearics. It has provoked protest from local hoteliers and travel trade representatives in Britain and Germany. Sean Tipton, of the Association of British Travel Agents, said: "These figures highlight how unfair the tax is. To call it an eco tax is misleading. It's a tourist tax, and it punishes the people bringing revenue to the Balearics. "Most of their visitors are families on budgets, and this adds about pounds 70 to a two-week holiday for a family of four. That could help them decide to go somewhere cheaper such as Turkey, so it's also a short-sighted policy." Tourist figures for the Balearics have been down by 80,000 a month from last year, when nine million people visited the Balearics. But the local government claims the eco tax has nothing to do with the downturn. "Our visitor figures from Britain are
actually slightly better at 1.5 million so far this year," said Marisa
Morant, a spokeswoman for the regional government in Majorca. "The problem
has been the economic situation in Germany, resulting in 7 per cent fewer
visitors from there." |