تحصل فارو على مليون يورو من الضرائب السياحية

“We were very satisfied, not only with the money raised, but even more because it corresponds to double what we had planned”, Rogério Bacalhau told Lusa, in an assessment of the first year in which the tourist tax was implemented normally, after two years when it was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tourist tax of €1.50 per night is applied in the municipality of Faro between March and October of each year, for a maximum period of seven nights for each stay of guests aged 13 years and over.

According to Rogério Bacalhau, the high amount collected with this fee makes it possible to conclude that “Faro is currently a tourist destination, which it was not a few years ago”, and also that “what some predicted did not happen”, that is, that the tax “would make the tourism sector lose competitiveness” in the municipalities that applied it.

The mayor assured that the fee will continue to be applied and hopes that other Algarve municipalities will soon approve regulations to benefit from this increase in revenue.

For Rogério Bacalhau, “this revenue is also important for the tourism sector, because it allows for more investments to be made in improving Faro as a destination”, namely, “in public spaces, in heritage, in cultural and event offers and in the improvement of services provided” to tourists.

In the southernmost region of Portugal, this rate is currently only applied in the municipalities of Faro and, in different ways, in Vila Real de Santo António.