The Tourism councillor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Pedro Quevedo (NC), expressed support for implementing a tourist tax in the city, but acknowledged that he does not have the backing of his government partners, PSOE and Unidas Sí Podemos.
The Tourism councillor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Pedro Quevedo (Nueva Canarias), has once again brought the debate on the tourist tax to the forefront, albeit with nuances. During the presentation of the city’s tourism strategy for 2030, held this Tuesday at the Hotel Santa Catalina, the councillor defended the measure but admitted that it is not part of the government pact that his party shares with PSOE and Unidas Sí Podemos in the capital's City Council.
Quevedo, who declared himself a supporter of the tax “since he was little”, did not wait for questions to address the issue. However, when asked about the possibility of the local government promoting the measure, he was clear: “I wouldn’t want to come here and poke someone in the eye. Government pacts are called that because they are agreements between different political forces where each must give up certain things if there is no absolute consensus. And since there isn’t on this issue, it is not part of the pact.”
The nationalist councillor emphasised that, despite his personal support for the tax, the decision must be collective. “The only place where what one thinks is gospel is in dictatorships, and that doesn’t happen here,” he stated. In this way, Quevedo made it clear that, at least in the short term, the capital of Gran Canaria will not advance in the implementation of this tourist tax.
The tourist tax, a stalled debate in the Canary Islands
The councillor took the opportunity to remind that Nueva Canarias has been demanding this measure for two decades, but its implementation requires broad consensus in the archipelago. In this sense, he cited the recent judicial resolution that annulled the tourist tax approved by the City Council of Mogán, governed by Onalia Bueno. “You see what happens when a city council tries to do it like Mogán did. That cannot be done like that; we need consensus in the Canary Islands,” he warned.
For Quevedo, there are no objective reasons to oppose the tax. “It is wrong that we do not understand that tourism activity, like any other activity, consumes services, land, or water. Consequently, we must plan what to do so that this activity generates resources to improve the things that need it after the deterioration it causes,” he argued. The councillor stressed the need to reinvest in tourist spaces and reflect on the role of tourism in the city’s development.
However, he lamented that tourism employers act as a dam to the measure and that the Government of the Canary Islands does not work towards it. “In the Canary Islands, it does not seem that we are close because there are sectors that have not managed to understand this,” he reiterated.
Examples from other cities
Quevedo reinforced his presentation with the intervention of Mari Angels Serra, technical assistant to the tourism plan until 2030, who provided examples of what happens in other national destinations. “Barcelona has been applying it for a decade, and Bilbao will implement it in this second half of the year. The comments from tourism employers in Catalonia were catastrophic and predicted a ruin that never came. No one stops going to a place because they charge that small amount for the tax,” Serra explained.
The debate, however, remains complex. Employers and the Government of the Canary Islands are at a standstill, and the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the most populated city in the archipelago, does not seem willing to exert pressure on the matter, at least while there is no consensus among the partners of the pact.
For now, the tourist tax in the capital of Gran Canaria will remain an aspiration for Quevedo, but not a reality. The councillor, however, is confident that time and the need to reinvest in tourist infrastructure will eventually impose the logic of the measure.
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