Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, Dec. 27, 2024 (Lusa) - Funchal city council on the island of Madeira expects to raise €1.2 million in 2025 by charging cruise ship passengers a tourist tax of €2 per day, the municipality revealed on Friday.
"I don't believe that anyone will stop disembarking for €2. If that's the case, they'll stop disembarking in several cities," said the mayor, Cristina Pedra, after the signing of a protocol between the city council and APRAM- the port authority of the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
The document establishes that the public company APRAM is responsible for channelling the funds from the collection of the tax to the city council, and that the process is free of charge for shipowners.
The tourist tax will start to be levied on cruise ship passengers from 1 January 2025, the year in which around 600,000 tourists are expected to disembark in Funchal.
"If that tourist's final destination is Funchal, they won't be charged the tourist tax, because they'll be staying in a hotel, for example, so there won't be any duplication," explained Cristina Pedra.
As a rule, cruise ship passengers don't stay on the island for more than a day, sometimes just a few hours, which is why the municipality expects to raise €1.2 million by 2025.
In terms of hotels and short-term rental accommodation in Funchal, the tourist tax came into force on 1 October and is expected to bring in around €1.6 million by the end of the year.
Each visitor to the largest district in the Autonomous Region of Madeira pays €2 per overnight stay, up to a maximum of seven nights, with an exemption for children up to the age of 12, a measure that will also apply to cruise ship passengers.
The city council expects annual revenue of between €10 and €13 million.
According to the municipality, the money from the tourist tax will be invested, for example, in the purchase of new equipment for urban cleaning and road repairs.
The amount will also be allocated to garden maintenance, cultural events and maintenance and transport management services, and there will also be a 2.5% contribution for hotels.
In January of this year, the Association of Municipalities of the Autonomous Region (AMRAM) announced that the archipelago's 11 municipalities would start charging a tourist tax of €2 from the second half of this year.
The municipality of Santa Cruz was the first in the region to apply the measure in 2016, initially with €1 per night. The charge should now cover all districts in the region by January 2025.
DC/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
