Tourist Tax

A tourist tax (also called a city tax, accommodation tax, visitor levy, or bed tax) is a fee charged by local governments to overnight visitors — typically per person per night — payable at the accommodation property. Revenues are intended to fund local infrastructure, cultural amenities, waste management, environmental management, and services strained by visitor volumes. The practice has spread significantly through major tourism cities as destinations seek to make tourism pay for its own costs rather than subsidising them from general municipal revenue.

Rates and structures vary widely: Venice's day visitor entry fee is a flat charge; Amsterdam's city tax is a percentage of the nightly rate; Paris applies a fixed per-night rate by hotel category; Barcelona's tax includes both a city component and a Catalonia component. Tokyo introduced a sliding-scale accommodation tax in 2025 for stays above a threshold room rate. Budget travellers staying in the cheapest accommodation typically pay less than luxury hotel guests, since many tourist taxes scale by accommodation category.