The regulation creating the tax was approved in June by the Setúbal Municipal Assembly and published in the Official Gazette on 2 August.

Setúbal City Council justified the creation of the tax with the considerable increase in tourist activity and the need to secure new sources of financing, in accordance with the “principle of fair distribution of public burdens”.

According to the Setúbal local authority, based on data provided by the National Statistics Institute, tourism activity in the municipality of Setúbal reached a total of 372,482 overnight stays in 2022.

“There has therefore been a significant increase in pressure on public infrastructure and facilities, on public roads and in the urban space in general of the municipality”, it states in the preamble to the regulation.

Given the daily demand of many thousands of tourists who are joining the local population, the municipality is faced with “the need to substantially increase, on a structural basis, investment and public expenditure in the provision of services and utilities inherent to tourism activity, in various areas of its respective attributions, in order to guarantee the necessary conditions for Setúbal's sustainability and attractiveness to all those who visit it”, without compromising the balance and quality of urban life of its residents.

The application of the tax does not entail “any additional costs for the municipality other than those arising from the provision of the service of settlement and collection of the tax to the owners of tourist developments or local accommodation establishments”.

These developments and accommodation establishments will receive a collection commission of 2.5% of the revenue from the tourist tax, the total annual value of which the local authority estimates at 400 thousand euros.