These countries are making tourist tax paid by tourists soar

While the aim is to combat overtourism, these increases also have a budgetary objective.

Is introducing or significantly increasing the tourist tax paid on site by tourists a lever to combat overtourism, which is currently growing? In Portugal, this is in any case the choice made by several cities that attract millions of holidaymakers each year.

From October 1st, a tourist tax in the city of Funchal on the island of Madeira will be applied and will be charged directly to guests on site. It will amount to 2 euros per night per person, up to a maximum of 7 consecutive nights.

Since September 1st in Lisbon, the amount of the tax has simply been doubled, going from 2 to 4 euros per person over 13 years old per night for a maximum of 7 days. For cruise passengers, it goes from 1 to 2 euros per day.

Tax doubled in Lisbon

The capital intends to increase its resources to better welcome tourists and mitigate the associated negative effects, denounced by residents. Six million tourists visited the city last year.

In New Zealand, entry fees for international visitors will be tripled from October 1, rising to around $62.

Objective: “to ensure that visitors contribute to public services and high quality experiences during their stay in New Zealand”.

The tax, called the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL), was introduced in July 2019, but is now considered insufficient to cover the costs associated with a sharp increase in visitor numbers.

The government has also decided to increase visa costs for visitors and is proposing to raise fees at regional airports.

In Italy, the Meloni government is considering significantly increasing the tourist tax to “make tourists more responsible” and, incidentally, to replenish the coffers of municipalities and the State.

Italy wants to double and generalize the tourist tax

According to a draft decree that circulated in the middle of the summer torpor, the tourist tax, currently around 5 euros, could increase to 10 euros per night for rooms costing 100 euros, to 15 euros for those costing 400 euros and to 25 euros for luxury suites costing more than 750 euros, AFP reports.

In Rome, the tax has already been increased in 2023, to 4 euros per day for a one-star hotel, up to 10 euros per day for a five-star.

While major tourist cities such as Rome, Naples and Venice are primarily affected, the tourist tax could be extended to all 7,904 Italian municipalities and also allocated to waste management.

In 2023, the tourist tax brought in no less than 800 million euros to the state coffers.

In Venice, the city has also introduced a five-euro entrance fee for day tourists in order to ease congestion on its streets and bridges. But the initial results are far from positive.

Obviously, these decisions are making tourism professionals grind their teeth.

Professionals worried but…

“Let’s not scare away tourists with taxes that are too high!” pleaded Marina Lalli, president of the federation of tourism professionals Federturismo.

“We already have a very high VAT, 22%, if we add surcharges we risk harming Italy’s competitiveness, especially for all-inclusive package tours which are calculated to the nearest euro,” she told AFP.

Hotels refuse to continue to serve as “cash machines” for municipalities, warned Bernarbo Bocca, president of Federalberghi, the federation of Italian hoteliers, in May.

Without denying these plans, the Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanchè denounced on Saturday “unfounded alarmism about the increase in the tourist tax”.

“In a period of overtourism”, Rome hopes that the tourist tax “will really contribute to improving services and making tourists who pay it more responsible”, she argued on X at the beginning of August.

“All the cities want to increase their tourist tax. It is presented as a way to combat overtourism but I don’t think it will lead to a drop in visitors to Rome, for example,” also tempers Helmut Stückelschweiger, CEO of Top of Travel, quoted by Echo Touristique.