The Socialist Party (PS) municipality of Coimbra criticized, in a statement, the current executive's intention to create a Municipal Tourism Tax, claiming that the sector is fighting for its recovery.


In a statement, the opposition to the coalition led by José Manuel Silva, says it has no objections to the application of Municipal Tourism Taxes, it just believes that in Coimbra the "post-pandemic numbers" have not yet made it justifiable to pay a tax.


The socialists also argue that at the peak of tourist demand, in 2019, Coimbra registered 709,504 overnight stays and in 2020, already in the Covid-19 pandemic, “that number dropped drastically to 253,373 and, in 2021, it stood at 336,864 overnight stays”.


In the statement, the PS underlines that data from the National Institute of Statistics indicates that in a few months of 2022, demand reached, at national level, values close to those recorded before the pandemic, but there is still no stable trend.


However, the board of the Coimbra delegation of the Associação da Hotelaria, Restauração e Similares de Portugal (AHRESP) met with the PS in a meeting "that was not formally consulted by the municipality", and was against the measure.