Barcelona is struggling to deal with the effects of mass tourism, with the city’s mayor planning to increase the tourist tax on cruise passengers visiting the city for less than 12 hours.

Jaume Collboni, a member of the Catalan Socialist Party, has announced a series of measures aimed at reducing overtourism and improving the city’s housing situation since becoming mayor last month.

Four weeks ago, Collboni said he would end apartment rentals to tourists by 2028, revoking the permits of the 10,101 apartments currently approved as short-term rentals. There have been massive protests across Spain against the devastating effects the booming tourism industry is having on people’s daily lives.

In an interview with El País on Sunday, the mayor said he would seek to increase the tax paid by cruise passengers, which is now €7 (£6) a day, to ensure the city properly benefits from the short tourist visits.

“Barcelona is a city open to visitors and tourism is an important sector of its economy,” Collboni told the newspaper. “Having said that, I am determined to address the effects of mass tourism on the city. That means we will go ahead with banning holiday apartments in 2028. But we will also significantly increase the tax on people who take cruises.”

He said tourist apartment rentals and short cruise stops are causing problems for the city and its pursuit of quality tourism.

“When it comes to a choice between tourists using housing and the right to housing, we decided to put the right to housing in Barcelona first,” said Collboni. “When it comes to cruise passengers – coming for less than 12 hours – they have an intensive use of public space without any benefit to the city and they have a sense of ownership and saturation. We want a tourism that respects its destination”.

The mayor did not say how much he plans to raise the tax, saying only that studies have already been commissioned. Collboni added that the idea behind the increase was not to discourage cruise guests, but to ensure that they generated revenue that could be invested in projects such as installing air conditioners in schools.

Last year, Spain, which has a population of 47 million, received 85.1 million tourists, a record number and an increase of 19% compared to 2022.