Barcelona officials are pursuing a maximum €24 municipal tax for cruise passengers who spend fewer than 12 hours in the city as part of a tougher response to overtourism. Short-stay cruise visitors could face combined taxes of up to €30 if the plan advances.
José Antonio Donaire, Barcelona’s commissioner for sustainable tourism, said the city wants to stop visitor growth and told: “Not one tourist more.” He also said: “We don’t want to grow more. We want the tourists that the city already has. There were 15.7 million tourists in the city in 2025 — that’s the threshold. Sixteen million is the maximum.”
Barcelona tax plan
The proposed municipal charge would triple the previously proposed €8 rate for short-stay cruise visitors. Jaume Collboni proposed doubling the overnight tax paid by cruise passengers from €4 to €8 earlier this year, and Barcelona nearly doubled its hotel guest tax on April 1, raising the nightly charge from roughly $5-$9 to $10-$17 per person.
Those changes place cruise passengers in a wider tax structure that already reaches beyond a single fee. For a traveler on the city for fewer than 12 hours, the municipal levy would sit on top of other tourism charges and lift the combined total to as much as €30.
José Antonio Donaire and residents
The push follows a longer campaign to slow tourism growth. Barcelona began rethinking tourism with a moratorium on new hotel construction in 2017, and thousands of residents protested last summer. Some protesters sprayed tourists with water guns, while signs read “One more tourist, one less resident” and “Tourist go home.”
Andreu Martínez said in July 2024 that his rent had increased by more than 30%. He also said: “Barcelona has been handed to the tourists” and “This is a fight to give Barcelona back to its residents.”
Barcelona and Catalonia
The city’s approach reflects a narrow line: Barcelona wants to limit tourism growth, but it still relies on visitors and is choosing revenue measures instead of a shutdown. José Antonio Donaire said 16 million is the maximum number of tourists the city wants, after Barcelona had 15.7 million tourists in 2025.
Catalonia welcomed about 20.1 million tourists in 2025, a 0.6% increase from the previous year. The city’s proposal leaves the immediate question in place for short-stay cruise passengers: when the higher municipal tax starts, their bill can rise quickly even on a brief stop in Barcelona.
