“Under the terms of the protocol signed with APL — Administration of the Port of Lisbon, the settlement and collection of the Sea Arrival Fee (TCVM) begins on April 1st”, according to the city council.
This tourist tax, which has a value of two euros for each cruise ship passenger who disembarks in Lisbon, was officially adopted in January but is only now starting to be charged to operators since when it was implemented there had already been sales of tourist packages for the first months of the year.
According to the Lisbon City Council, this tourist tax is charged “per passenger who disembarks from a cruise ship in transit, at the cruise ship terminals located in Lisbon”, with the amount being applied in advance in the sale, regardless of whether the passengers stay asleep more than one night on the ships.
The tourist tax is charged by APL to operators, through the JUL – Janela Única Logística platform and this entity is also responsible for delivering the “tax proceeds” to the local authority.
Cruise operators were informed “some time in advance” so that they could introduce the corresponding value into their tariffs, meaning that those who did not have the opportunity to reflect this cost on the passenger “will have to assume the amount to be paid for the fee”, said the Port Administration.
Lisbon City Council estimates that this tourist tax for cruise passengers will generate an annual revenue of 1.2 million euros.