An increase in the number and cost of travel taxes around the world has left travel experts increasingly divided about their necessity and effectiveness.

New and increased tourism taxes were an ongoing theme in 2024 as governments sought to raise revenues wherever possible in an increasingly volatile and cash-strapped world.

Europe’s most eye-catching charge landed in Venice where day trippers have had to pay a charge of €5 since spring 2024 while overnight visitors face similar charges.

Elsewhere, Indonesia introduced a charge of about £7.35 in February for any travellers planning on visiting Bali.

Meanwhile, increases in existing taxes saw New Zealand’s triple from NZ$35 to NZ$100 while the fee for visiting Lisbon doubled to €2 per night in the summer season.

Paris introduced a temporary increase for the Olympics of up to 200 per cent with the highest rate of €15.60 per night, which has now been made permanent.

Amsterdam raised its tourism tax from 7 per cent to 12.5 per cent while Barcelona, which has seen many anti-tourism protests, increased charges by 11 per cent.

Further introductions and increases are also happening in 2025, with Thailand set to levy arrival fees of up to 300 baht while the UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) will mean visitors from the US, Europe, Australia and Canada will join a long list of those already required to pay the £10 charge from April.

Not to be outdone, the EU is also preparing a new €7 charge for 2025 aimed at non-EU travellers visiting from outside the Schengen zone.

While the there are numerous reasons given to justify the fee – ranging from investing in the destination’s infrastructure to even deterring visitors during peak periods – travel industry experts are questioning their need at all.

The value of travel

World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) vice-president of communications Jamie Wortley says: “While it is understandable that destinations seek to generate revenue through tourism taxes to support infrastructure and local services, it is important to recognise that the travel and tourism sector already contributes billions in existing taxes worldwide.”

He adds these taxes are just a small amount of the money spent in destination which is considerable, WTTC’s own figures show that in the EU alone international visitors are expected to have spent €516.7 billion in 2024, up 11.5 per cent on the €471.5 billion spent in 2023, while domestic travellers were expected to spend €982.2 billion in the same period – and are predicted to break the trillion euro barrier in 2025.

While there are concerns that new taxes could stifle this growth, Wortley urged governments to look beyond the initial tax to understand the value the traveller brings.

He adds: “Sustainable policies should balance the needs of local communities with the long-term competitiveness of destinations, ensuring that visitors are not simply seen as revenue sources but as valuable contributors to economic growth, cultural exchange and job creation.”

Tom Jenkins, the CEO of the trade association for operators and suppliers in European destinations ETOA, is also concerned about the global trend for introducing and increasing tourism taxes.

However, his concerns are centred around the fact that in-resort charges, such as overnight accommodation taxes, are often not paid by the intended target.

He adds: “Tourism taxes aren’t so much a tax on tourists but the businesses that cater for tourists.”

Jenkins argues that tourists only consider the overall prices that they will pay and do not spend time breaking down the individual costs to understand why a destination’s prices are increasing.

This means businesses in newly taxed destinations often absorb the charges in order to stay competitive.

Jenkins says: “The person who has to shoulder the fee is the business owner as the tourism tax ends up being included as part of the price and the margin goes down instead.”

He also argues that hotels and other tourism businesses are already highly taxed through VAT and staff costs and insurances, meaning they should not bear the brunt of any new costs.

“A huge proportion of turnover is now going not on servicing the client but servicing the government,” Jenkins says.

Michael O’Regan, a lecturer in tourism and events at Glasgow Caledonian University’s Glasgow School for Business and Society, believes that many tourism businesses would back small charges such as Edinburgh’s visitor levy which will see a 5 per cent charge added to a traveller’s accommodation bill in June 2026.

However, he warns that any money collected must be shown to be benefitting the destination and the tourist experience as opposed to disappearing into a governmental budgetary black hole as can often be the case.

And he has concerns over how the money will be collected, especially with the accommodation sector being increasingly fragmented by a range of options from the traditional hotel to house and flat shares driven by sites such as Airbnb.

“The mechanics are always interesting and we need to know who will pay for it, who will collect it and how the money will be spent,” O’Regan says.

“Should the money be collected by VisitScotland with the money going further to promote the country?”

Institute of Travel and Tourism chairman Dr Steven Freudmann argues that any money raised by tourism taxes would be best spent on improving the experience for both tourists and residents, particularly in destinations that are already suffering from overtourism.

He also believes that collecting the tax which is most often levied on travellers staying overnight can be easily undertaken.

Freudmann says; “The only practical way of doing it … is to ask each accommodation provider to collect it and pass it on.”

Costly collection

Even if a solution can be found that taxes every visitor fairly, whether they are day trippers or overnighters, and provides reassurances that the money will be well spent in destination, ETOA’s Jenkins warns that the cost of collecting the tax can be so high that that becomes a problem too.

He adds: “Destinations tend not to introduce tourist taxes when they are doing well as they are very expensive to collect.”

Whatever happens, tourism taxes look to be a growing trend globally, especially if governments only consider the headline figure and remain wilfully blind to both the details and difficulties inherent in the taxes, which of course we all know never happens anywhere at all.