Until now, the tourist tax, which in Gaia is called the City Tax, had two values: one euro/night in the low season (between October 1st and March 31st) and two euros/night in the high season (between the 1st of April and September 30).

The proposal of the socialist majority, to which Lusa had access today, points to a general increase, going to 2.5 euros/night throughout the year.

Câmara de Gaia, from the Porto district, justifies that this value is “weighted taking into account both inflation, by applying the update factor based on the accelerated variation of the Consumer Price Index, in the period 2018/2023, which around 15%, or the need to moderate and mitigate the impact of the growing tourist pressure that is currently being felt in the daily life of the city”.

At the same time, the municipality of Gaia also proposes to charge tourist tax to those who stay in boat-hotels, something that did not happen until now.

The City of Gaia Tax applies to guests who stay in tourist resorts or local accommodation establishments.

“[So for] justice and equity in relation to other visitors, and to safeguard competition between tour operators, [it is important] to extend the incidence of the fee to paid overnight stays on vessels such as hotel boats”, reads in the proposal.

Regarding the Vila Nova de Gaia City Tax, in January 2020 the mayor, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, announced that he was going to “launch inspection” of local accommodation.

The announcement was made after the mayor commented that the fee in question had yielded 1.2 million euros in 2019, less than half of expectations.

In February it was decided that users of camping and caravan parks in Vila Nova de Gaia would pay half of the City Tax.

“Aware of the specificity of these tourist developments, in which the value of the city tax is very close or almost coincides with the daily price usually charged to campers, it is understood, for reasons of proportionality, to reduce the same by 50%”, he said.

The City Tax of Vila Nova de Gaia was unanimously approved in a city council meeting on September 3, 2018 and the regulation on this tax was published in the Diário da República (DR) on October 22 of the same year.