Carlos Moedas pushes for increased tourist tax to invest in cleaning, culture and green spaces in Lisbon

Lisbon City Council President Carlos Moedas pushed on Monday to increase the tourist tax from two to four euros, the proceeds of which could be used for investments in city cleaning, culture and green spaces.

“If the city sees the value of tourism, whether it is in better cleaning, better spaces, but also in more culture, then tourism is really worth it, it shows,” defended the mayor at the signing ceremony of the concession contract for the creation of the “Almada Fresco Interpretation Centre at the Maritime Station” between the Lisbon Port Authority (APL) and the Lisbon Tourism Association (ATL).

Carlos Moedas once again defended the doubling of the fee charged to tourists visiting Lisbon from two to four euros per night, which has drawn criticism from the Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP) and the Portuguese Hotel Association (AHP), and cited as an example the new Almada Negreiros Fresco Cultural and Tourist Centre in the marinas, which has generated around 3.5 million euros in tourist tax.

“When I say I want to raise the tourist tax, I mean precisely so that there is more culture, more cultural equipment, so that the city is cleaned up, so that there are more green spaces,” insisted the president of the Chamber, addressing journalists at the end of the ceremony.

Carlos Moedas also stressed that this measure allows “to reduce taxes for Lisbon residents”, recalling that tourism accounts for almost 20% of the city’s economy and 25% of employment, and ensuring that the idea “is not to reduce tourism, but to invest in other areas”.

“We are working with Lisbon Tourism to think about new central places, […]We have about 35,000 tourists [diários] that come into our city, and those 35,000 tend to go to the same places, the same parts of the city, and we need to get new focal points, just like with what we do here,” he said.

The director general of the Lisbon Tourism Association, Vitor Costa, believes that the capital’s sector is most concerned about the use of funds collected through the tourist tax.

“Tourists, when they go to a certain city, also have their weight, their intervention, and what worries us in the tourism sector is that there are resources so that tourists have a greater connection with the city and the quality of the city is improved through these resources,” the official said, believing that “it is good for tourists, but above all, it is good for residents.”

Regarding the concerns expressed by some entities that the increase in the fee would lead to a reduction in the number of tourists, Vitor Costa said that he does not share this point of view and believes that this will not happen.

“We have already had the experience when the fee was introduced at one euro, when it was changed to two euros, and it had no effect. This movement of requalification, of higher quality tourism in Lisbon has been tested,” he said.

The ceremony on Monday was presided over by the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, who in statements to journalists summed up “100 days of a government that came to do something, and not for party trifles.”

“These are the first 100 days of many more in which the government led by Prime Minister Luis Montenegro will have to show the Portuguese what it came for,” the government official stressed.

Already answering a question about the international public tender for the construction and management of the first section of the Porto-Lisbon high-speed line, for which two bids have been received, Pinto Luz said that “the government will not have to wait for many or few bids” and that what is important is “that everything is done well, on time and within budget”.