The harshest way to scare away tourists, by sensitively hitting them on the wallet, is introduced by the European capital, where they are most tired of tourists. We are talking about Amsterdam – next year there will be introduced the highest tourist tax in Europe, as soon as its new increase will take place. The press of the Netherlands writes about it, referring to the statement made by the financial director of the city, Hester van Buuren.
The city plans to raise the overnight tax to 12.5% of the hotel room cost, while cruise ship passengers will pay €11 per person instead of €8. As a result, tourists will have to pay an additional 22 euros per night on average for a room of 175 euros. Previously, this amount was 15 euros. According to the official, this is the fourth highest indicator in the world.
The city administration had planned for a lower increase but preferred to raise the rate under pressure from the council. In total, the city expects to collect 65 million euros from tourism taxes next year. At the same time, according to Van Buren, the fight against tourists was not the primary goal. “Of course, it would be good if a high tax helped fight against excessive tourism, but then there would be less money,” the official said.
Also, according to her, Amsterdam is in close contact with other cities that are trying to cope with the overwhelming number of tourists, such as Venice and Barcelona. “We also have to deal with one-day tourists. We can’t put up turnstiles to keep anyone out of the city, but we’re going to look at ways to make day visitors pay some kind of city tax,” she said.
According to official statistics, more than 20 million visitors will visit Amsterdam this year, many of whom come to the city for just one day. But the tax is intended to drive away from the capital “big” visitors on a limited budget, who “only create problems, especially in the red light district”, according to the local authorities.