Seville Authority Will Charge Entry Fees To Plaza De Espana For Tourists

Plaza de Espana in Seville, Spain. (Wikimedia Commons/Jagv1966)

Tourists visiting the city of Seville in southern Spain may have to pay a fee to explore the vast and decoration-packed Plaza de Espana square, the city hall said, as part of a plan to control the advantages of tourists in public open spaces.

"We plan to close Plaza de Espana and charge tourists to finance conservation and ensure its safety," Mayor Jose Luis Sanz wrote in a post on social media platform X.

Complete with a half-circle Neo-Moor magnificent structure framed with a tall tower at both ends and four bridges above the trench, Plaza de Espana is part of a complex built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exhibition designed to reflect the typical Spanish characteristics in its tile architecture and decorations.

Thousands of people from all over the world visit him every day, on a tourist horse train or on foot.

Plaza de Espana is the center of cultural life in Seville, which is a venue for concerts, dramas and fashion shows. It was once used as the set for the 1999 film 'The Phantom Menace'.

Although Sanz explains local residents are still given free access, many X users, including from Seville, are quick to criticize the plan.

"Tourism tax for all visitors will reduce debate and generate more revenue. Listen to the public, not the hotel business," wrote one user.

Another added: "What people want from you is the tourism tax and the general regulation of mass tourism that is destroying our city".

With more than three million tourists per year and a population of 700,000, Seville is the third most visited city in Spain, which is also one of the most visited countries in the world, with tourism reaching 13 percent of GDP.

It is known, many tourist cities in the world have difficulty finding a balance between tourism that is urgently needed and maintaining its appeal to its residents.

In Italy, the Veniceian authorities, a popular tourist location, will impose a trial fee starting next April to limit the number of daily visitors.

The city council said last year that Venice would charge entry fees of 5 euros (Rp82,395) for daily visitors, in order to try to manage the flow of tourists coming to historic canals there.