Coping with the consequences of the pandemic and the economic crisis at the expense of tourists – more precisely, thanks to the tax imposed on them – was proposed in London. The beloved city the city of many tourists is puzzled by the question of how to save public transport and others lost money during the pandemic of the industry. Experts assure that hundreds of millions of pounds can be extracted from the pockets of tourists per year.
At least, these are the figures presented by Professor Tony Travers from the London School of Economics. He told the London Assembly that the tourist tax could generate hundreds of millions of pounds a year for the city. At the same time, the tax from an individual tourist will be relatively small – as the professor assured, if each international tourist paid about 2.5 pounds per night in the form of tourist tax, London would earn about 102 million pounds per year. We remind you that the amount of tax in hryvnias will be slightly more than 110 hryvnias. at the current rate.
Funds earned in this way are intended to be used to support the transport network. TFL (Transport for London) suffered serious losses during the pandemic, and now the capital’s authorities are discussing what to do with the transport network. The situation is complicated – so much so that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the chairman of TFL said: “Without a long-term funding agreement, TFL will have to prepare for further painful cuts to London’s transport network.” A tourist tax can be one of the solutions to the problem of funding deficit – experts are sure. But for now, this is only a proposal – opponents of the introduction of the tax are sure that it can drive away tourists.
We will remind you that London is not the only city where the introduction of such a tax is being discussed. In Venice, in pre-war times, the idea of introducing a paid visit to the city center was generally discussed – at least for one-day tourists. The bottom line is this: all tourists arriving in Venice must book tickets on a special website. At the same time, residents and tourists who stay overnight in hotels and non-hotel facilities will be registered automatically, those who arrive in one day will have to enter their data on the portal. Registration is planned to be made attractive thanks to incentives – such tourists will be offered discounts and priority visits to museums and public transport, unregistered visitors will face anti-incentives – queues and higher fares.