That Hotel Room and Dinner Out Just Got Cheaper — IVA Drops to 8% Through Sunday
Cuenca Expat Staff
If you're eating out, booking a hotel, or renting a car this weekend, you're paying almost half the normal tax rate.
President Daniel Noboa signed Executive Decree 368 dropping the IVA (Ecuador's sales tax) from 15% to 8% on tourism-related services. The reduction runs from Thursday, April 30 through Sunday, May 3 — the full four-day Labor Day holiday.
What Qualifies
The reduced rate applies to services covered under Article 5 of Ecuador's Tourism Law:
- Hotels and accommodations — hostels, Airbnb-style stays if they're registered tourism providers, boutique hotels
- Restaurants and food service — any registered food and beverage establishment
- Transportation — flights, buses, car rentals, boat rides, even river transport
- Travel agencies providing their own transport services
- Tour operators and event organizers
- Amusement parks and entertainment venues
What Doesn't Qualify
Your grocery run at Coral or Gran Aki? Still 15%. Same for retail shopping, non-tourism services, and your monthly utilities. This is specifically a tourism stimulus.
What You Should Do
- Check your receipt. The IVA line should show 8%, not 15%. If it doesn't, point it out — the decree requires establishments to apply the reduced rate
- Book that dinner you've been putting off. The savings are real: on a $50 meal, you're saving about $3.50 in tax. On a $100/night hotel room, that's $7 back in your pocket
- This applies everywhere in Ecuador, not just Cuenca. If you're heading to the coast or Quito for the long weekend, the reduced rate follows you
Why It Matters
This is the government's way of juicing domestic tourism during the long weekend. For expats, it's a straightforward discount on things you were probably going to do anyway. The decree also created the four-day weekend in the first place — Noboa suspended work on April 30 via Executive Decree 354 to extend the holiday.
Seven percent off everything fun this weekend. Don't leave it on the table.
Source: El Universo
