{"text":[[{"start":9.16,"text":"From the ancient city of Kyoto to Barcelona, Malta and the Maldives, countries and cities around the world are increasing taxes on tourists."}],[{"start":17.74,"text":"France and Italy now raise more than €1bn a year apiece from such duties and last year Greece’s tourist tax receipts rose by almost two-thirds. England said this month it was giving mayors powers to raise potentially unlimited levies."}],[{"start":32.64,"text":"The tourist tax drive is gaining steam, as hard-pressed local and national authorities seek voter-friendly ways to raise revenues and exert a measure of control over a tourist boom that is regularly breaking records."}],[{"start":45.4,"text":"Mateu Hernández, director-general of Turisme de Barcelona, which promotes the Catalan city, is proud it has one of the highest tourist taxes in Europe, set since April at a nightly rate of as much as €12 per person. He depicts the levy, which helps fund air conditioning in sweltering public schools, as part of a shift in tourism from “quantity” to “quality”."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":66.98,"text":"Some areas want taxes to curb crowding even more sharply, as post-pandemic tourism surges to new heights, with a total of 1.54bn international overnight visitors last year according to the World Travel & Tourism Council."}],[{"start":80.36,"text":"Venice, which imposed overnight accommodation duties in 2011, brought in precedent-setting fees for day trippers in 2024. Other cities and regions, including San Diego and Columbus in the US and Manchester in the UK, invest the funds in marketing to attract still more guests."}],[{"start":98.5,"text":"So far, experiences across the world indicate that the duties are proving more efficient at providing a fiscal fillip than at keeping the waves of tourists in check in the world’s most famous destinations."}],[{"start":109.7,"text":"But some worry that the hospitality industry will end up paying the bill or that they will divert travellers from less glamorous locations."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":117.4,"text":"Scottish Ballet has cancelled plans to extend a Christmas run of Cinders! — its gender-swap retelling of Cinderella — in Edinburgh due, it says, to soaring accommodation costs, exacerbated by a new tourist levy in the Scottish capital."}],[{"start":130.6,"text":"“Local authorities are strapped for cash and this kind of seems like a hack: a way to raise money without taxing your voters,” says Dan Neidle, founder of UK-based think-tank Tax Policy Associates. “But we’re not seeing realistic analysis from government of where the cost will actually fall.”"}],[{"start":147.1,"text":"While not all countries have nationwide figures on tourism tax receipts, in a report this summer the OECD group of rich countries noted that New Zealand, Japan, Malta, Greece and the Maldives have all increased tourism-related taxes over the past two years."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":163.24,"text":"At a city level, Kyoto increased its maximum accommodation taxes almost 10-fold in March, while Amsterdam laid out plans in June to charge a 20 per cent levy by 2030, the steepest in Europe."}],[{"start":175.28,"text":"“It’s a fashionable time for taxing visitors,” says Jan van der Borg, a professor of tourism management at Leuven Catholic University who cautions that governments should not mistake the levies for “a magical instrument”."}],[{"start":187.16,"text":"If, like the UK, governments want simultaneously to bring in more tourism and more tax revenue, they have to find a Goldilocks rate. Set it too low, and you lose out on valuable income. Set it too high, and you risk eroding the tourist economy that pays the tax."}],[{"start":203.76,"text":"Van der Borg warns that for those looking to curb crowding and cut tourist numbers, “ill-targeted” overnight levies — the most common form of visitor tax in Europe — risk hitting the most lucrative visitors while sparing day trippers who do not contribute as much to the local economy."}],[{"start":218.76,"text":"In Amsterdam, which has tied its visitor charges to a target of keeping annual tourist numbers under 20mn, he says applying the levy to accommodation rates “hurts the most interesting type of visitor: the people that want to spend several nights in your place, see the hidden gems, and spend money locally”."}],[{"start":219.26,"text":"Bears among us"}],[{"start":234.68,"text":"Italy introduced one of Europe’s earliest modern tourism levies in 1910. Initially targeted at spa towns and health resorts, the taxes spread across the country under Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime in the 1930s."}],[{"start":248.64,"text":"The levies were scrapped nationwide ahead of Italy’s 1990 World Cup but made a comeback in the 2010s and are now a mainstay of more than 1,000 municipalities, according to Italian tourism consultancy JFC. They are an important source of funding for local governments, bringing in a total of close to €1.19bn in total in 2025."}],[{"start":269.92,"text":"In Japan, where a long-running campaign has boosted international tourist numbers from 7mn in 2005 to 43mn in 2025, the taxes have also become an important source of revenue."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":281.449,"text":"Japan started charging a nationwide tax in 2019, while some cities have also imposed extra levies on hotel stays, with rates varying depending on the room cost. Kyoto’s tax is notably high, at up to ¥10,000, while in Tokyo even stays in tiny capsule hotels are now taxable. Other quasi-tourism taxes imposed in recent years include new fees for climbing Mount Fuji, which was free until 2024, and a ¥2,500 fee for non-residents to visit Himeji Castle."}],[{"start":311.809,"text":"For tourist hotspots, the funding opportunity is clear, but there is less evidence that the taxes help combat overtourism. Kyoto has become one of the most popular destinations for tourists in Japan, attracting 13mn overseas visitors last year, placing strain on the city’s infrastructure and overcrowding its once-tranquil temples and streets."}],[{"start":333.48,"text":"This July, Japan tripled its international tourist tax to ¥3,000. The revenue from the additional tax is supposed to fund countermeasures against overtourism, such as promoting the attractions of places outside the core tourist magnets of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, as well as improving tourist infrastructure."}],[{"start":351.377,"text":"Part of the budget for the current fiscal year was allocated to controlling the wild bear population in rural areas and funding the war against parasites afflicting the country’s famous cherry trees."}],[{"start":364.22,"text":"Similarly, visitor levies have been proliferating in Spain alongside mounting angst about overtourism in what is now the world’s second most visited country after France."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":372.175,"text":"Revenue from the Balearic Islands’ “sustainable tourism tax” — introduced a decade ago in Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera — is channelled into investments for what the regional government calls “the structural needs of residents”. This month it approved a new €200mn spending package dedicated to projects ranging from desalination to video surveillance."}],[{"start":393.746,"text":"But that money has not quelled complaints from some locals that tourism is pushing the islands to breaking point by driving up housing costs, straining public services and degrading the environment. In July, police fired rubber bullets and struck protesters with batons after thousands took to the streets in Palma de Mallorca to demand curbs on tourism."}],[{"start":414.886,"text":"Nor has Venice’s day-tripper levy stopped the city from setting new visitor records. Officials are now exploring raising the fee, which was previously set between €5 and €10 but lapsed in July, to as much as €30, according to Reuters."}],[{"start":415.386,"text":"Stealth taxes"}],[{"start":415.886,"text":"Tourist taxes are not exactly popular with the sector tasked with actually collecting the levies — hospitality."}],[{"start":416.386,"text":"Normally they are applied to hotel rates. So as not to put off prospective customers, accommodation providers typically absorb a proportion of new levies and end up taking home less than before, says Kelsey Fenerty, manager of analytics at hospitality data tracker CoStar. They may also feel unable to push through annual rate increases."}],[{"start":416.886,"text":"Studies of levies applied in recent years suggest that, “generally speaking, it takes about a year” before hotels can start increasing their take-home rates again, says Fenerty. Occupancy is usually unscathed — in part because hoteliers tend to absorb much of the new costs."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":417.386,"text":"The way the rate is applied can make a big difference. Many cities in Europe — including Barcelona, Lisbon and Rome — allow hotels to exclude tourism taxes from the headline online price, adding the levy only once guests arrive at the property. By that point, “it’s kind of too late to impact guest demand”, says Fenerty, adding that this might explain why hotels in Barcelona have been able to keep pushing up their take-home rates in tandem with increases to local levies."}],[{"start":417.886,"text":"In the UK, by contrast, anti-drip pricing rules mean that hotels will have to advertise the total price including all mandatory fees and charges upfront, making the tourist tax “more visible here”, says Neidle of Tax Policy Associates. That could increase the chance of would-be travellers looking elsewhere."}],[{"start":430.14,"text":"The UK government has said it expects local authorities to levy only a “modest charge” that will have “minimal impact on visitor numbers”. But lobbyists warn that raising taxes could backfire by denting demand, ultimately curtailing hoteliers’ ability to stay in business, pay further taxes and employ locals. UKHospitality, an industry body, says a 5 per cent tourism levy could cost as many as 33,000 jobs in the UK."}],[{"start":457.88,"text":"Almost a fifth of respondents to a February survey by the World Travel & Tourism Council said that existing tourist taxes had already caused them to visit a different destination than they had originally planned."}],[{"start":469.822,"text":"“Travellers experience the total cost of a trip rather than its individual components,” says Marriott’s Europe president Neal Jones."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":478.04,"text":"Taxes are also split into percentage levies and flat fees. England has gone with percentage fees — the precise rate of which can be defined by local mayors. Ministers say this will limit the pain for budget travellers while maximising returns from the wealthy."}],[{"start":494.56,"text":"Hoteliers, however, say they would prefer a flat fee. A fixed charge would have saved a “huge” administrative burden for Jackie Innes, an Edinburgh landlord who says it has been “impossible to figure out” how to calculate the right charges to apply to the two apartments she rents out."}],[{"start":509.12,"text":"Places like Edinburgh and London might “get away with” raising levies, says Alan Glen, a partner at accountancy Azets. Tourists will always want to visit places with the unique stature of Venice. But seaside UK towns, or second-tier Italian cities, could struggle to compete."}],[{"start":525.908,"text":"This could raise the prospect of local tax wars, particularly among rural and seaside towns. Researchers in Italy have in the past found some evidence of “substitution” towards resorts with lower taxes."}],[{"start":538.366,"text":"Not all markets are created equal. “Blackpool is not Venice,” Neidle says."}],[{"start":546.34,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790407715_1665.mp3"}