As of today, the Setúbal City Council will start charging a tourist tax of two euros per guest of legal age per night, a measure that is expected to bring in “around 400,000 euros a year” for the municipality.
The municipality justified the creation of the tax with the considerable increase in tourist activity and the need to secure new sources of funding, in accordance with the “principle of fair distribution of public burdens”.
According to the municipality, based on data provided by the National Statistics Institute, tourist activity in the municipality of Setúbal reached a total of 372,482 overnight stays in 2022.
“There has thus been a strong increase in pressure on public infrastructures and equipment, on public roads and on the municipality’s urban space in general,” says the preamble to the regulation.
The executive led by André Martins (PEV, elected by the CDU) opted for a tax that is levied exclusively on overnight stays in tourist resorts, local accommodation establishments and campsites located in the municipality, up to a maximum of five nights.
The application of the tax does not entail “any increase in costs for the municipality beyond those arising from the provision of the service of settling and collecting the tax from the owners of tourist resorts or local accommodation establishments”.
These enterprises and accommodations will receive a collection commission of 2.5% of the revenue from the tourist tax, the total annual value of which the municipality estimates at 400,000 euros.
Until August, at least 26 municipalities in Portugal charged a tax for overnight stays in tourist accommodation, but several municipalities will start applying the measure this year and others plan to start in 2025.
Today, in addition to Setúbal, Caminha’s tourist tax comes into force.
