Those who feared a domino effect after some popular vacation destinations started playing around with the idea of a "tourist tax," or a fee for those coming into the city or country from somewhere else, had reason for concern.
In the last six months, lawmakers in Iceland, the Bahamas and the Indonesian island of Bali have all held public discussions on the idea while cities such as Venice and Cancun went ahead and introduced one in the last year.
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And even when a given place introduces such a fee, there is no guarantee that it won't be increased later. While the city of Amsterdam currently charges overnight visitors an additional 7% of their hotel or other accommodation cost to raise funds for keeping the city clean and combatting the other effects of overtourism, the city's council voted to raise it to 12.5% by 2024.
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That trip to Amsterdam is about to get a lot more expensive
"With an average room rate of €175 ($185 USD) per person, this means an increase from €15.25 ($16.13 USD) to €21.80 ($23.06 USD) per night in 2024," the City of Amsterdam announced in a press release while also adding that those coming in on cruise ships can expect to pay up to an additional €11 ($11.63 USD) per day. "[...] Investments will be made mainly in those neighborhoods and districts where they are most needed and to maintain facilities."
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The double-digit fee tacked on to one's hotel or Airbnb (ABNB) -) stay in Amsterdam would make it the highest such tourist tax in Europe. The Spanish city of Valencia has approved a tourist tax of approximately €2 ($2.20 USD) per day while Venice in Italy has a similar fee for hotel stays but is about to also test an experiment in which those coming into the city of canals for the day during peak tourist periods will have to pay a fee of €5 ($5.34 USD).
Venice's city council issued a statement saying that this was "not a tool for making cash" but rather a way to mitigate large crowds during particularly busy periods by encouraging tourists to come in during less popular weekends without the fee.
The 'tourist tax' is creeping in but is it helping fight crowds and overtourism?
After testing the fee for 30 days in 2024, Venice's city council will decide to either scrap or expand the program to more dates based on how efficient it is at bringing down crowds.
Over in Amsterdam, the city's Deputy Mayor For Finance Hester van Buren said that the higher tax would help fight "the consequences of overtourism and direct additional resources to keeping the streets clean and solving acute problems" in the city.
While Amsterdam is home to just over 820,000 residents, the city saw over five million international and 1.6 million domestic tourists in 2022. Over the last year, both residents and local authorities have been fighting back against a sharp spike in "offensive behavior [such as] public urination and vomiting, littering, drunkenness and noise" that they do not have the resources to deal with when it occurs in much higher numbers and disproportionately to the number of local city workers present.
