Surge prices for early check-in or late check-out, airfares riddled with buried fine print, rental car red tape: Hidden fees often mean your vacation ends up — surprise! — being more than what you budgeted for.
Travelers should expect that 2024 will see more mercurial costs woven into their holiday bills, thanks to a new crop of tourist taxes that vary not just country-by-country, but city-by-city, hotel-by-hotel.
Increasingly, hot spots around the world are imposing tolls to foot the bill on a range of issues associated with tourism, from conservation to congestion. (Amsterdam recently went as far as to enact a “Stay Away” campaign aimed at hard-partying foreigners in the city's famed red-light district.)
While there’s little proof that these taxes put too much of a strain on itineraries (most charges fall between a couple bucks and 100 dollars), there is plenty of evidence that such measures benefit residents and visitors alike by helping rebuild public transportation, protect nature reserves and repay debt from billion-dollar weather disasters.
Still, like any good taxpayer, travelers deserve transparency around how their hard-earned money is being spent on vacation. From Greece hitting up visitors to help cover last year’s wildfires to Paris spiking rates across the city in advance of the Summer Olympics, our guide breaks down what you need to know about a new crop of tourist taxes going into effect this year.
Venice
After lengthy delays, a day-tripper tax is coming to Italy's City of Canals in April.
Resident Population: 2.8 million.
Annual Visitors: About 30 million people visit Venice each year, with a majority of tourists coming for just the day and around 3.2 million guests staying overnight in Venice's historic center.
Entrance Fee: On April 25, Venice will begin a pilot run of its day-tripper tourism tax. Initially, the "entry fee" will cost €5 and only be in place on certain days between April 25 and July 14. As of now, the tax won't apply to hotel guests and visitors traveling to Venice's lagoon islands, including Murano and Burano.
