The Plenary of Elciego approves the tourist tax for stays.

The Municipal Plenary of Elciego provisionally approved, at its ordinary session held on 31 July 2026, the establishment and the fiscal ordinance regulating the tax on tourist stays in the municipality. The announcement was published in issue 91 of the Official Gazette of the Historic Territory of Álava (BOTHA), corresponding to Wednesday 12 August 2026, with official reference 2026-02368. With this publication, a thirty-day public information period begins, during which interested parties may examine the file and submit objections.

The decision was adopted by the Plenary of the Elciego Town Council, which thus promotes the implementation of its own tax that will levy tourist stays made in the municipality. The file is processed under Article 19 of the consolidated text of the Provincial Norm regulating Local Treasuries, approved by Provincial Normative Decree 1/2021, which establishes the procedure for approving the tax ordinances of the municipalities of the Historic Territory of Álava. The published announcement does not yet include the articles of the ordinance, which will be announced in the BOTHA once the agreement becomes final.

A municipal tax on overnight stays

The tourist stay tax is a municipal scope tax instrument that will levy tourist stays made in the accommodations of Elciego. With provisional approval, the Plenary has given the green light to both the establishment of the tax and the fiscal ordinance that regulates it, the first step in the procedure provided for in the provincial legislation on local treasuries. The scope of the tax and the conditions of application will be set out in the text of the ordinance, which will be published once the procedure is concluded.

Thirty days of public information

In accordance with Article 19 of the consolidated text of the Provincial Norm regulating Local Treasuries, the file is subject to public information for thirty days, counted from the day following the publication of the announcement in the BOTHA. The period therefore begins on 13 August 2026 and extends until 11 September 2026.

• Start of the public information period: 13 August 2026, the day after publication in the BOTHA.
• End of the period for submitting claims and suggestions: 11 September 2026.
• Purpose of the procedure: examination of the file and submission of claims and suggestions by interested parties.

The announcement specifies that, should no claims be submitted during the public information period, the provisional agreement shall be deemed definitively adopted without the need for a new agreement. In that case, the ordinance will be published in the BOTHA. The announcement is signed in Elciego on 4 August 2026 by the mayor, Juan Carlos Uribe Rueda.

The procedure brings Elciego, a municipality in Rioja Alavesa with a notable influx of visitors linked to wine tourism, closer to having its own tax on tourist stays, a measure that will affect both the municipality’s accommodation establishments and those who stay overnight in them. The outcome of the public comment period will determine whether the tax is finally approved and, with the publication of the ordinance in the BOTHA, the definitive conditions of application for the local tourism sector and its visitors will be known.

Source: Official Gazette of the Historical Territory of Álava (BOTHA), no. 91, of 12 August 2026, section II – Local Administration of the Historical Territory of Álava, p. 1 (official reference: 2026-02368).