The mayor Rui Moreira wants a city tax in Oporto

  • ECO News
  • 6 February 2017

The mayor of Oporto says the goal of the city tax would be to "prevent tourism from growing exaggeratedly as it did in Barcelona".

Rui Moreira on ECOTalks, Oporto. Paula Nunes/ECO
Rui Moreira on ECOTalks, Oporto. Paula Nunes/ECO

During the third ECOtalks, this Thursday, the mayor of Oporto stated that if he is reelected for a second mandate in the city, he will introduce a city tax in Oporto.

Rui Moreira considers it did not make sense to introduce the tax during the first mandate, mainly because it was an issue which he did not discuss during his campaign, and also because his mandate is close to an end. Nonetheless, Moreira emphasizes: “There is broad consensus on this subject”.

When asked about what he would do with the income from the city tax, Moreira mentioned the goal would be to prevent tourism from “growing exaggeratedly as it did in Barcelona and in Mouraria, Lisbon”. The mayor also states “the goal is not to compete with private institutions” and acknowledged “the amount  for the tax is yet to be defined”.

Rui Moreira denies, however, that tourism is repelling citizens from the city; he even mentioned that until 2011 “there was’t any boom in tourism” and in spite of it, boroughs were already loosing citizens. In fact, the mayor of Portugal’s second largest municipality discloses “the city hall must have an active accommodation policy to make sure citizens stay in Oporto”.