Alex Cuenca

🏕 With travelers increasingly seeking planet-respecting and community-positive experiences, 71% have not yet fully planned their spring vacations, seeing 46% open to discovering new destinations. HBX Group's environmental and social responsibility is evident as they've planted over 16,000 trees and compensated nearly 3,000 tons of CO2. Their workforce, representing 89 nationalities, 56% female, exceeds 3,600. They've dedicated 12,000 volunteer hours and trained 100% of their staff in ESG principles, aiming for ISO 14001 certification at their Palma de Mallorca headquarters. HBX Group offers 40,000 certified sustainable hotels and 135,000 accessible accommodations, reducing single-use plastics and promoting the Sustainability Hub and Think Big regenerative tourism, planning expansion into more countries.

🚩 Catiana Tur from ACAVE warns that the doubling of the tourist tax in Barcelona will damage the city's competitiveness, especially as it will become the most expensive in the country. Tur criticizes the allocation of tax revenues to housing policies instead of reinvestment in the tourism sector and beneficial city infrastructure, fearing it could divert tourists to other destinations and discourage off-season travel. The concern extends to impacts on both vacation and MICE tourism.

💸 Óscar Perelli, the Executive Vice President of Exceltur, criticizes the planned increase of the tourist tax in Barcelona, arguing it's not the solution for managing tourism's negative externalities. He suggests improving the management of overcrowded urban areas and combating illegal offerings as more urgent than raising taxes. The measure could harm Barcelona's competitiveness and disproportionately affect less affluent travelers. Perelli also labels the proposal to allocate a quarter of the tax revenue to housing problems as inappropriate, as tourists shouldn't be held responsible for local housing issues.