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45,000 Danish summer house owners could get cheaper electricity bills

Around 45,000 owners of summer houses in Denmark could see their electricity bills reduced by a proposal to reduce taxes in this year’s budget.

Published: 29 August 2018 13:32 CEST

45,000 Danish summer house owners could get cheaper electricity bills

Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

The proposal could see average savings of 5,000 kroner annually for summer house owners, depending on the size and electricity consumption of individual properties.

Denmark is set to present its proposed 2019 budget in full on Thursday.

“The proposal partly promotes conversion to green energy, because it will result in more green electricity being used. It will also make it more attractive to own a summer house,” tax minister Karsten Lauritzen told TV2.

“We are currently not competitive on the summer house market during the winter months in terms of what you can earn in rent compared to the price of electricity,” Lauritzen said.

The government’s proposal provides funding of 200 million kroner to give equality between summer houses and year-round homes in terms of electric-powered heating.

The Danish Chamber of Commerce said it welcomed the proposal.

“The Danish Chamber of Commerce has long pointed out the potential for growth in the market for rental of holiday homes, in particular outside of peak season,” the organisation’s CEO Brian Mikkelsen, a former minister for business affairs, said in a press statement.

Tourists would be less likely to be put off by hefty electricity charges as a result of the proposed change, Mikkelsen said.

“That’s why we are very pleased that electrically-heated holiday homes, like year-round homes, will now be encompassed by the lower electricity taxes,” he said.

“Denmark’s tourism sector will benefit greatly from this equality between permanent and holiday homes,” he added, noting also that the move could contribute to a “longer tourism season, where there are guests and life along the coasts outside of the summer months”.

READ ALSO: Summer heat sets tourism records: DI

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate).

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average.

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal.

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun.

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring.

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022.

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices.

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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