Spanish city to impose new tax on visitors, saying: 'They have to pay for the privilege!'

The square in front of the Toledo Cathedral is filled with tourists (Image: Getty)

The historic city of Toledo in Spain is to charge a new tax on tourists who visit on tour buses.

The city council says the new charge is NOT a tourist tax but insists visitors on tour buses leave very little income in the city and they should pay for the privilege of visiting such an historic location.

From 2025, tour operators will therefore have to pay a fee that will range between onr and 1.5 euros for each tourist who visits the regional capital and who arrives via the buses that these companies charter daily. The amount they will have to pay will depend on the capacity of the vehicle ie the price will be different for a minibus than for a 65-seat bus.

A significant number of buses arrive in Toledo every day with people who are only in the city for a few hours and who go on short guided tours before re-meeting their bus.

"It is hard and difficult to see that they leave nothing in Toledo," tourism councillor, Jose Manuel Velasco told the Spanish press.

To reverse this situation, the Government team has devised a new tax that tour operators will pay so that this intensive tourist use generates compensation for the people of Toledo.

"We want the investment in tourism to come from income from tourism," said Mr. Velasco.

"It is not a tourist tax"

He stressed it was not a tourist tax as such because this is the responsibility of the autonomous communities.

"What we town councils do have is the possibility of regulating parking in the city and the loading and unloading area," he explains. "It is more of a tax for the right to load and unload in controlled areas, if we want to define it that way. The payment made by the tour operators will also allow us to improve the arrival and collection of tourists."

In principle, there will be three areas of the city where the buses of the tour operators, after paying the fee, will be able to drop off or pick up tourists. The chosen places are the docks of Granadal, the San Martin bridge and the Cardenal hostel.

These three locations are those already used on a daily basis by these tourist companies and will be monitored by cameras. Companies which don't pay the fees before letting passengers off will be fined.

The Safont docks are considering installing a barrier that opens when it identifies that the bus that wants to enter the premises has paid the fee.

Mr.Velasco said he didn't think the new cost will be "especially burdensome" for this type of company.