Tourists are among the few taxpayers a city can charge without worrying about the next election. They arrive, spend, pay, and leave. If the bill goes up, their only real objection is to stay home or go somewhere else.
In July, I wrote about the quiet reinvention of the hotel tax. The old American model used visitor money to build convention centers, finance destination marketing, and bring in more visitors. The newer version uses the same taxes to support housing, schools, climate projects, and ordinary city services.
That story followed where the money now goes. This one asks why governments in very different places keep reaching for the same taxpayer.
The pace is accelerating. Italy expects its visitor taxes to raise more than €1.2 billion this year across 1,411 municipalities. Amsterdam’s governing coalition wants to lift its accommodation tax from 12.5% to 16% next year and then gradually to 20%. Kyoto raised its top accommodation tax from 1,000
