Mayor proposes anti-tourism tax

PARNU - Parnu Mayor Toomas Kivimagi has proposed a plan to charge a tourism tax for those travelers who stay in Parnu during the summer, reports Arileht. The tax is aimed at collecting additional income for the city. Since there are tens of thousands of tourists who spend their summer in Parnu, even charging them one euro apiece would bring in considerable additional income for the city, which could later be used for marketing the city, he says.

“The state could make an exception to resort towns such as Parnu and allow them to charge a so-called city tax from hotel guests, a common practice worldwide,” said Kivimagi, adding that the tax could be one euro a day. The charge is expected to be small, so that it would not become an obstacle for those travelers who wish to visit the city.
“It would be small enough not to drive away tourists, but would enable the city to raise considerable funds over a short period of time,” he said.

According to Kivimagi, the new tax would be most likely used for collecting funds for promoting Parnu as a tourism destination, for instance by improving the tourism infrastructure near the hotels in question and determine the use of the tax together with hotel operators.
Hotel operators have a completely different view of the proposed tax: they oppose the new tax saying that it would drive away tourists.