Paying "holiday tax"

greenface

More of a rant than a question but there is a question in there too. We do a fair bit of travelling mainly around Europe . Hotel tax or tourist tax abroad payable at the desk at check in . it all adds up to a fair chunk of money added to the fair chunk of money I spend in their city or country . depending on the star of the hotel it rises too, from memory we have paid around 40 euros in crete similar Tenerife , long weekends in barcalona . Bratislava . Vienna . all this year alone . We are off to turkey kusadasi next week we have paid £20 each for the tourist visa online . are we going to get rammed for more at their hotel on arrival . booked this through jet2 and they do not say we do . Or is the tourist visa we have bought to cover this ? My second part is do people from other countries visiting this fine land of ours pay any sort of tourist taxes . Say the countries named above . Is there a tax payable within the uk ? I cannot say I have noticed or ever asked it ,

TELLIT01

If you object to paying the tourist tax levied by various contries, simply take your money to countries who don't charge it. From personal experience, the figures involved are tiny in comparison to the total holiday cost. Certainly not something worth getting worked up over.

Ganga

We have also had to pay " tourist tax " in Majorca several times,as you say it is time the UK levied its own tax or a visa requirment for visitors,might help the countries finances.

Voyager2002

greenface wrote: »

We are off to turkey kusadasi next week we have paid £20 each for the tourist visa online . are we going to get rammed for more at their hotel on arrival . booked this through jet2 and they do not say we do . Or is the tourist visa we have bought to cover this ?

The online visa should cost $20 (twenty dollars), so if you only paid twenty pounds you got a bargain.

leylandsunaddict

A visa has nothing to do with local taxes. Tenerife has no tourist taxes that are payable on arrival.

Turkey were introducing an airport security charge but whether the tour operator has put that in their holiday cost I don't know. You would have to ask them.

No tourist taxes in the UK, but visas aren't cheap for those that need one. We should be considering ourselves lucky that the UK is staying a Schengen Visa free country.

If you object to paying tourist taxes then holiday where there isn't any.

Caz3121

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

No tourist taxes in the UK....

currently...will be coming to Edinburgh (£2 per night)
Highlands and Islands looking at it too

leylandsunaddict

Caz3121 wrote: »

currently...will be coming to Edinburgh (£2 per night)
Highlands and Islands looking at it too

True. There's other destinations "looking" at it too.

I personally don't care if a destination attracts tourist taxes. They're just factored into the overall cost, just like checked luggage etc are on a flight. If the overall cost is too high then I just look at a different destination.

TELLIT01

Voyager2002 wrote: »

The online visa should cost $20 (twenty dollars), so if you only paid twenty pounds you got a bargain.

How do you work out that £20 is a bargain when the cost should be $20? Exchange rate isn't 1:1 - yet.

IvanDP

We have no problem paying "Tourist" or "City" taxes when we go away.
We look at is as contributing towards the running of the place we are visiting.
We use many of the facilities that the locals use, so see it as only right we should contribute something.

I would also be happy to see the same sort of levy applied to some if not all of Britain's major tourist hotspots for the same reason. Use the facilities, expect to pay for them.

Most of the places we have had to pay the "tourist" tax, it was usually only around the equivalent of about 1 euro pppd.

bagand96

Agree with another poster who said if you are so offended by it then visit places that don’t charge it - or maybe just stay within the confines of “this fine land of ours”

Tourist taxes are levied by various different entities, be it a city council, a regional government etc. Whether you agree with it or not, mass tourism has a huge impact, and indeed cost for regions that are subject to it. Yes - it brings in millions for the economy, but it also brings its issues. As a tourist I have no issue with contributing a small amount towards that impact.

Edinburgh is charging a tax soon, York and Bath have both openly considered it in the past - willing to bet in a few years from now it will be commonplace in UK tourist hot spots.

maman

IvanDP wrote: »

We have no problem paying "Tourist" or "City" taxes when we go away.
We look at is as contributing towards the running of the place we are visiting.
We use many of the facilities that the locals use, so see it as only right we should contribute something.

I would also be happy to see the same sort of levy applied to some if not all of Britain's major tourist hotspots for the same reason. Use the facilities, expect to pay for them.

Most of the places we have had to pay the "tourist" tax, it was usually only around the equivalent of about 1 euro pppd.

I agree. I've willingly paid all over Europe. My understanding is that the money goes directly to the locality to promote tourism.

In this country, local authorities have had their budgets cut so much that they can barely afford to fund their statutory obligations like social services so tourism is well down the pecking order. Funds are needed for maintaining historic buildings just as one example.

To answer OP's question. No tourist tax that I've been asked for in Turkey.

ETA : A visitor visa for a Turk to come to UK costs £93.