Tourist taxes in Europe
 

They should use it to mitigate the impact of overtourism on locals.

No amount of money can keep a city clean and safe. It can be done only with responsible citizens who keep their city clean and an adequate police force with a clear mandate to fight crime.

Belarus is one of the poorest countries of Europe, but it is also one of the cleanest and safest.

https://eng.belta.by/society/view/mi...s-115738-2018/

We have paid tourist taxes of up to €1pp a night plus an eco tax at campsites in France and Germany. Basic campsite rate say €18 a night quickly becomes €21.
I have no problem at all with it. Why should residents have to bear the tax burden of clearing up after tourists.

probably using it to mitigate the climate change that will have a major effect on a mainly below-sea-level country.

If they incur additional costs like having to hire more trash collectors, do more trash collections, hire more police etc.

But it's doubtful they are spending anywhere near that much for additional services.

If they use some of that money to help people who are priced out of the center because of tourism, that would be understandable.

If it ends up in some politicians pockets or the pockets of their cronies ...

"If it ends up in some politicians pockets or the pockets of their cronies . "

No this is the Netherlands not Italy, Romania, Chicago etc

Yes the story is about Amsterdam raising it's tourist taxes.

But the thread should be about all the countries, which are all raising these taxes.

Got to pay for all that waste carbon somehow.

Sounds like a travel related topic to me. This should be in the Europe forum.

Europe is not unique in having tourist taxes.

The tax goes to pay for many things - cleaning, policing, infrastructure, all of which suffer from the sheer numbers visiting cities like Amsterdam.

We already pay a special tax to help protect the country from rising water, and we pay high and rising fuel taxes. Unlike some countries which will be severely affected by rising sea levels, the Dutch have been taking action for many years now, and continue to do so. It doesn't mean we won't get flooded, but it may take longer than in say Florida, or Louisiana.

It's not only in Europe. Lots of places have a tourist tax. Or a high hotel tax (here in Seattle) which in effect is a tourist tax. Don't even get me started on Hawaii.

Hardly unique about Amsterdam.

And yes why hasn't this been moved to Europe forum like all the others?

1. This thread is clearly about tourist taxes in Europe. It doesn't matter that other places have tourist taxes. Every place has restaurants. Threads about restaurants in Paris belong in Europe.
2. Even if, for the sake of argument, you say it's not about tourist taxes in Europe, tourist taxes are related to travel so should not be in the Lounge (Travel tips and Trip Ideas).

Moved to Europe Forum

Our local taxes have increased a few euros per year in the past couple of years exactly to deal with this situation - I don't know whether the tourists themselves actually pay a tax separate from ours, but I think they do, and they should. But yes, there are major costs associated with cleaning up after the tourists who arrive in droves in summer and dump their un-separated bags of garbage in the local dumpgrounds, litter the campgrounds, and disregard the local recycling laws. We have to employ extra cleanup crews all summer. I guess you could argue that the revenue the tourists bring in should cover these expenses, but I'd have to examine the local revenue spreadsheets to see if this is true or not. All I know is I'm glad it's fall and most of them are gone. I know my town needs the revenue, so it's a double-edged sword.

80 billion? I think not. That's the budget for the entire country 2 times over.

I think you read one zero too many.

Ah

"The move follows an agreement in 2018 to increase tourism revenue from €80m to €105."

yeah, it's clearly millions

Some cities in the US have really high "tourist" taxes which are mainly lodging taxes, same as what they are referring to. But basically that would be nonresidents passing through. They are really high in Hawaii and NJ and NYC, I think they are close to 18 pct in NYC (it's 15 pct plus $3.50 per day). Even in Ohio, my home state, it's about 10 pct total.

Yeah sorry, messed up the numbers. Still a lot of money. Way more than enough to cover extra garbage collections and more police.

In the US, they use tourist taxes to fund stadiums or some other big projects, so it's not just about paying for the additional stress that tourism puts on the infrastructure.

Maybe bigger tourist cities like Amsterdam could put some of that money for other important things. Or you often hear people complain that tourism drives locals away from the center of places like Florence or Venice because they get outpriced. So maybe use some money with housing assistance.

Cinque Terre can't handle the sheer volume of tourism. So maybe they need to raise tourist taxes there, to improve things like sewage.

Tourism costs Amsterdam more than it can profit from tourism revenues. The rise in tourist taxes was partly to scare away cruise companies, forcing them to IJmuiden and Rotterdam instead (so now we have more cruiseships adding their pollution).

Nope, that's not something our government is prepared to spend money on.

Can't they just jack up the berthing fees at the port?

Also that makes no sense, cruise passengers stay on ships so they wouldn't be paying tourist taxes collected by hotels?