A Gozo guesthouse owner has decided to pay the new tourist tax himself because he is “too embarrassed” to charge guests given the poor state of the environment.
“I am so dismayed by the environment in Gozo that I am too embarrassed to charge my guests extra and, therefore, I have decided that I will be paying the tax out of my own pocket,” Peter Llewellyn, who runs a three-bedroom guesthouse in Sannat, told this newspaper.
The 50c per night tourist eco-tax, announced in the last Budget, should have come into effect last month but had to be put on hold as operators complained about not having the necessary infrastructure in place to collect and manage the tax.
Mr Llewellyn estimates his decision will cost him about €200 a year, basing his calculation on the number of nights clients spent at his guesthouse last year.
The tax, capped at €5, is expected to generate about €6 million a year and the funds will go to a new public private partnership that will involve the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association and the government.
Mr Llewellyn noted that, though there had been some investment in Gozo to spruce up the island in an attempt to attract more tourists, there were still too many shortcomings.
Asked to mention some, he said the island was littered with garbage, rules in place to manage construction sites were blatantly ignored and a good number of vehicles were falling apart, in the process polluting Gozo.
“I value all my guests and, being a small guesthouse, I am frustrated at having to ask them to pay that extra fee. How can I tell them this would be going towards enhancing their experience while staying here when, instead of improvements, we seem to be moving backwards,” Mr Llewellyn said.
He said he was also shocked to learn that when collecting the levy he would be required to record his guests’ ages, verified through their travel documents.
“I can understand finding out whether the guests are over 18 or not because those younger need not pay the levy but does the authority really expect us to delve into our guests’ privacy like some unpaid immigration officer? It’s all so very bizarre.”
He deemed the system to be too intrusive and said such procedures would surely make some of his guests feel uncomfortable. “I want to make my guests feel welcome here not push them away with these bizarre procedures.”