Let's Talk About Tax, Baby!
At Place Generation, we work with places around the world and see one clear trend: tourism taxes are popping up everywhere.
Why is this happening? How do these taxes work? Are they the same for all visitors? And what are they actually used for? In this mini-series, we'll explore what's behind the growing "user pays" model in tourism.
"The User Pays" Becomes the Global Standard in Tourism
"The user pays" model is rapidly becoming the norm in global tourism: more of the costs of managing visitors, protecting nature, and preserving culture are being shifted from residents to travellers through dedicated taxes and fees.
Tourism brings clear benefits, but it also creates real costs that someone has to pay. It sounds fair to ask the user to contribute, but what actually happens with all that tax money? In this first article, we share what we see in the places we work with and give an overview of the most common tourism taxes in the world today.
1. Visitor/accommodation taxes
The best-known tourism tax is the lodging or accommodation tax: a levy added per night to hotel, hostel, or short-term rental stays.
In North America, combined state and local hotel taxes commonly fall between about 6–15% of the room rate. In Europe, many destinations either charge a percentage tax (often 5–12.5%) or a flat fee of roughly 0.50–4 euros per person per night, sometimes with higher tiers for premium properties.
Some places are now pushing this type of tax to levels that make the accommodation sector genuinely worried. In Amsterdam, the city already applies a 12.5% tourist tax on the overnight price, and from 2026, the Dutch VAT on accommodation will increase from 9% to 21%. Together, this pushes the total tax burden on hotel stays to roughly one-third of the room price.
Hawaii offers another example. From January 2026, the state is adding a "green fee" of 0.75 percentage points on all transient lodging statewide, raising the state's Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) to 11%. When combined with county surcharges and the general excise tax, some visitors will face a tax load close to 19% just on their nightly rate.
It will be fascinating to track how such high accommodation taxes influence destination choice, length of stay, and the mix of visitors in these places.
2. Arrival and entry fees
Some destinations charge a fee simply to enter the country, island, or a specific site, especially where ecosystems are fragile and carrying capacity is limited.
Island states, archipelagos, and iconic heritage cities use these arrival levies both to regulate visitor numbers and to generate earmarked funds for conservation and infrastructure. In New Zealand and many protected islands or reserves, international visitors may pay international visitor conservation and tourism levies on top of standard visa and transport costs, with revenues directed to biodiversity protection and basic facilities.
Destinations such as Venice have also experimented with day-tripper or access fees to manage peak-day crowding, with the stated aim of funding public services and maintenance costs that rise sharply with mass tourism.
3. National park and protected-area fees
National parks and protected areas increasingly rely on user fees to fund trail maintenance, rangers, visitor infrastructure, and conservation projects.
Many systems differentiate between residents and international visitors, charging higher rates to the latter on the principle that locals already support protected areas through general taxation. In the United States, the National Park Service has gradually increased entrance and camping fees, particularly at high-demand "crown jewels", to help cover operations and backlogs, while keeping lower or free access for many day-use areas.
Parks Canada, New Zealand's Department of Conservation, and Australian state park agencies follow a similar logic, applying higher fees or differentiated hut and campsite charges for foreign visitors on popular routes and explicitly linking this revenue to conservation and visitor-service budgets.
4. Cultural heritage fees
At major cultural and heritage sites, differentiated pricing for non-residents is increasingly used to finance restoration, preservation, and security.
Angkor Wat in Cambodia is a clear example: foreign visitors purchase dedicated Angkor passes whose revenues support restoration work under the APSARA Authority and contribute to local development and social projects.
In France, several flagship museums, including the Louvre, have announced ticket price increases that will raise standard admission from 22 to 32 euros between 2025 and 2026. Government officials and museum leaders frame these higher charges on international tourism as a way to fund operating costs and renovation without excessively burdening domestic taxpayers, while also covering rising energy, staffing, and security costs in an era of high visitor numbers.
5. Environmental and sustainability taxes
Environmental or sustainability taxes explicitly link tourism revenue to ecological protection, waste management, water security, and climate-related investments.
The Balearic Islands' Sustainable Tourism Tax, introduced in 2016, charges per-night fees that flow into a dedicated fund financing projects such as dune restoration, water-supply improvements, cultural heritage preservation, and sustainable mobility. Official data from the Balearic government show that tens of millions of euros raised in the first years were invested in dozens of projects ranging from habitat recovery to innovation and training in the tourism sector.
Other destinations, including parts of Thailand and similar island environments, have introduced small "sustainability fees" or marine-park surcharges to support reef protection, coastal cleanup, and improved waste and wastewater systems in heavily visited coastal areas. Hawaii also applies a 1-dollar fee to certain water-based recreation activities, directing this revenue to marine life protection programmes.
6. Cruise passenger taxes
Cruise ports face concentrated environmental and infrastructural pressures from large ships and day visitors, and many have introduced per-passenger fees to help offset these impacts.
Juneau, Alaska, for example, charges a combination of state and local marine passenger fees—around 13 US dollars per cruise visitor when state and local components are combined—to fund port-related infrastructure and services. A federal court decision clarified that such per-passenger ship fees must be used for projects that directly benefit ships and passengers, shaping how Juneau and similar ports design and justify tourism-related investments.
Caribbean and European cruise destinations also levy harbour and head taxes per cruise guest, often channelling this revenue into docking facilities, environmental monitoring, and city services used intensively by short-stay visitors.
And beyond…
There are many other ways destinations charge visitors: from airport departure taxes to vehicle access fees, event surcharges, and more experimental "solidarity" contributions.
If you know of other creative or controversial tourism taxes, do let us know. In the next posts in this series, we'll dive deeper into what actually happens with the money, which models work best for places and communities, and how destinations can design tourism taxes that are fair, transparent, and regenerative.
- ELKE DENS
