Here's how you're planning to reshape the tourist tax

Art cities: overtourism and the new tourist tax. These are the issues that hold sway among insiders in this August of super work for tourism. In particular, there is talk of a draft remodeling of the tourist tax up to 25 euros, unrelated to the star rating, and on the other a series of surveys on cities where the pressure of tourists on the inhabitants is very high: one figure above all, in Venice it is as if there were 271 tourists every day for every inhabitant of the lagoon (considering only the residents in the insular part of the municipality, excluding those on the mainland).

Important numbers for understanding the flows are also those of the tax revenue for municipalities from the tourist tax: the municipality of Rome alone collected more than 165 million euros from the tourist tax in 2023, a year in which the total revenue was an impressive 792 million euros. The tax, let’s remember, applies not only to hotels, but also to other forms of hospitality such as agritourisms, bed&breakfasts homes rented through computer platforms.

Let’s start with the early August boutade on the tourist tax. On August 5, the draft under consideration by the government of a reshaping of the taxable amounts for the tourist tax and the extension of this tax to all municipalities that wish to introduce it was leaked. Now, in fact, the law (of 2011, which reintroduced the tax after it was eliminated in 1989), stipulates that only capital municipalities, unions of municipalities and municipalities defined as tourist by the relevant ISTAT/Regions classification, may have the option to introduce it with the freedom to choose the amount (for most, the maximum is 5 euros per night per person). Differences in the amount follow the type of facility or the number of stars given to the hotel; some municipalities apply a fixed fee per type of facility. In the latest budget maneuver, the government has provided for municipalities with twenty times the number of residents to raise the tax up to a maximum of 10 euros per person per night (maximum 10 nights per year) and also is given the option to increase up to an additional 2 euros in the tourist tax for the Jubilee year of the Catholic Church in 2025. In Rome, therefore, in the Jubilee year for one night in a 5-star hotel a person will also be able to pay 12 euros per night in tourist tax.

The change of criteria on which the government is leaning would leave aside the relationship to categories with stars and become proportional to the cost of the room. Rooms have for years now followed the typical fluctuations of a stock market, with the rises and falls in cost depending on demand and day of the week. The ’stars’ correspond, we recall, to minimum standards offered (parking, elevator, swimming pool, furniture, frequency of linen change, bedding, h24 service, etc.) and the tourist can compare prices based on the same guaranteed minimum requirements. Another important change for municipalities would be the allocation of these resources: in fact, the revenues would be used not only for interventions in the tourism sector (the purpose of this purpose tax) but also for waste collection and disposal. Specifically, the revision hypothesized in recent weeks envisages an increase in the maximum amount up to 25 euros per person per day with a reshuffling of the amounts according to the cost of overnight stays: up to 5 euros for overnight stays of less than 100 euros per night, up to 10 euros for rooms between 100 and 400 euros per night, up to 15 euros for accommodations between 400 and 750 euros per night, and up to 25 euros for overnight stays of more than 750 euros per night (yes... there are these in hotels as well).

As soon as this draft became public, the main association of hoteliers immediately spoke out against it: for Federalberghi the increase is so significant that “it would be equivalent to a doubling of VAT, which is currently 10 percent.” It goes on to ask the government “to impose proper budgetary discipline on local authorities, instead of providing tools to make the situation worse,” relaunching the proposal to overcome the tourist tax applied to accommodation facilities and move to a city tax: “Federalberghi also reiterates the proposal to finance the functions carried out by local authorities in the field of tourism in ways other than the tourist tax. For example, instead of a tax paid only by the guests of accommodation facilities, a city tax should be established or activate a co-participation of local authorities in the VAT revenue of all productive activities that benefit from the tourism economy.”

Federalberghi president Bernabò Bocca (who is also president of Fondazione Cr Firenze) had launched this proposal during the 74th National Assembly of Federalberghi held in Viareggio last May: this is how it happens “in New York,” he again explained from the pages of Il Messaggero.

Confindustria Alberghi also protests, stressing that accommodation facilities should not be considered “a mere ATM for municipalities.” President Maria Carmela Colaiacovo said she was surprised by the possibility of approving a text that “seems to blow off some of the cornerstones of the reform under discussion.” The reference is to the earmarking of the revenue earmarked to support tourism activities. The president of Fiavet, the trade association of Confcommercio Travel Agencies, Giuseppe Ciminnisi, wrote to the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanché, expressing concern: “In a tourism market as competitive as the one faced by destination Italy, the perception of costs drastically influences travelers’ choices.” The increase in the tourist tax, for organized tourism, complicates the planning of package sales, given the uncertainty about the actual costs that will fall on beds.

As a result, the Ministry of Tourism had to run for cover with a note specifying that “interlocutions with trade associations and other institutional actors have not yet been concluded” and that “dialogue will continue in September.” Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè, returning to the issue, told Corriere that “not all taxes are a tax. The tourist tax, better to say purpose tax, is not. In times of over-tourism we are confronting it so that it is a real help to improve services and make the tourists who pay it more responsible.” And in an interview with the Tirreno newspaper on Aug. 15: “The tourist tax must be invested in tourism services, in promotion, it must support policies of tourism management, accessibility, deseasonalization and relocation. It should not be used to settle the debts of municipalities.” She therefore spoke for a different view of the government draft, a text therefore that she seems not to share with other government colleagues.

The municipalities through ANCI, their association, also intervened: “We are not against a reform of the tourist tax, but this draft reform creates many concerns and leaves too many unknowns open: of revenue, on controls, on short rentals,” stressed Mattia Palazzi, ANCI vice president and mayor of Mantua. “One imagines,” he continued,“ a new tariff scheme (from person to room rate) without any discussion of the revenue changes that may result. The strengthening of controls is not considered, while the new scheme renders the data on overnight stays used so far useless. The risk of revenue losses is therefore very serious and cannot be overlooked.” After Vice President Palazzi, of the PD, ANCI President Roberto Pella, mayor of Biella, of Forza Italia, intervened the following day: “Anci’s interlocution with the Ministry of Tourism is constant, even in these hours I have been reassured by Minister Daniela Santanchè on the willingness to convene a table in September with the municipalities, to work together on a proposal to revise the discipline of the tourist tax.”

However, the proposal to overcome the current architecture of the tax to which tourists are subjected is an issue that transcends political colors or alignments. Among industry operators, AssoHotel - Confesercenti President Francesco Gatti spoke favorably in the aftermath of the approval of the resolution in the Senate Finance Committee that called for the revision of the calculation of the tourist tax in a manner proportional to the expense for the room. He told RomaToday in February 2024 that that would be “A way to make us truly competitive with other European cities.”

The previous month, Roma Capitale tourism councillor Alessandro Onorato during a panel discussion at Albergatore Day organized by Federalberghi Roma, led by Giuseppe Roscioli, in January 2024, pointed out how the Capitoline administration would “wanted to change the visitor’s tax by introducing 5 percent to each transaction made by the Roman accommodation system as is the case in Berlin,” thus referring to the cost of the room by untying it from the stars as in the government’s draft - and reshape it so that it is lowered gradually “from the center toward the suburbs.” The subsistence tax “should have a gradualness, it is not right that the amount of hotels in Ostia or on the border with Fiumicino is the same as those staying in Piazza Venezia or Via Veneto,” explaining, however, that on the latter hypothesis “an opinion of the Minister of Economy and Finance does not allow us to introduce this gradualness. Our hands are tied.”

To understand the impact that this tax has, let’s look at the data provided by the Ifel-Anci Foundation to Il Sole 24 Ore: in 2023 (a super year for Italian tourism with over 134 million arrivals and 451 million presences) there were 1,259 out of 7904 municipalities where the tourist tax was in force (there were 1,146 the previous year), with a total revenue of 792 million euros: +26% compared to 2022. The top ten cities secured more than 50 percent of the total revenue. Rome remains unreachably at the top of the list with an impressive 165 million collected in 2023, +38.6% over 2022. The maximum applied in Rome is 10 euros per person per night for 5-star hotels, rates have been increased to the end of 2023(Art Windows article here). In second position, albeit with a sidereal distance, is Florence, surpassing Milan for the first time: the Tuscan capital collected almost 70 million euros (+64.3%), which is explained not only by the increase in tourists but also by the increase during the year of the tax. Visitors to the city grew by 21.3 percent in one year, and as of April 2023 the amounts have been reshaped upward with a maximum of 8 euros per person per night for in a 5-star hotel. Milan stands at about 62 million euros and in fourth place we see Venice with 38.52 million euros with a +22.1% over 2022. Those who pay the tourist tax are exempt from the fee for those entering the lagoon(here is Finestre sull’Arte’s article on the first revenue findings) .

After the Venetian capital comes Naples with 17.5 million euros (maximum 5 euros per day) again during 2023 was adjusted upward. The increase is 34 percent over 2022. This is followed by Bologna with 12.6 million euros, Rimini 11.5 million, and Turin with nearly 10 million euros (maximum 5 euros per day). Sorrento in ninth place with nearly 7 million euros and in tenth place the new entry of Verona with 6.5 million euros, thus surpassing Jesolo. The town on the Neapolitan coast has the highest ratio of revenue to residents: nearly 7 million in revenue equals 420 euros of ’benefits’ per resident. At the regional level, the highest revenue is in Lazio (173.12 million with only 40 entities where the tax is in effect), followed by Tuscany (106.71 million for 128 municipalities) and Lombardy (91.68 million distributed among 149 entities).

Here's how you're planning to reshape the tourist tax

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.