Barcelona plans to buy central shops with tourist tax

The City Council of Barcelona is preparing to buy central shops with the tourist tax to curb souvenir stores. The project will be presented at the end of the year.

With what tourists pay for overnight stays, the tourist tax of Barcelona will be used to purchase commercial premises in the city centre. The City Council, led by Jaume Collboni, aims to stop the proliferation of souvenir shops and nail salons that are replacing traditional commerce.

According to the municipal commissioner for Sustainable Tourism Management, José Antonio Donaire, the council is working on two fronts: legislative reform and the legal and administrative mechanism to make the operation possible. The measure goes beyond the restrictions already applied to certain commercial activities, as it directly enters the real estate market.

The project will be presented at the end of the year and will be developed during 2027. There are still no defined criteria for acquiring the shops or a system for allocating them afterwards, so the final form of the initiative remains open.

The proposal adds to another plan by Collboni to buy iconic or strategic businesses to prevent their disappearance, inspired by an experience implemented in Paris. The revenue it relies on is already considerable: in 2025, the city collected 148 million euros from the local surcharge of the tax, its second largest source of income after IBI.

For residents, the change will be particularly noticeable in the neighborhoods most exposed to tourist pressure, where shops that close or change use could return to local commerce if the plan goes ahead. The council is also acting in the Boquería market, with changes to limit prepared food and recover the sale of fresh products.

Barcelona has also created a tax for tourist coaches and plans to increase the tax burden on tourist apartments. According to the council itself, it will eliminate licenses for tourist homes in 2028 and raise the surcharge for cruise passengers who stop without overnight stays to 24 euros.