Global Examples of the Visitor Levy in action
In 2024 alone, a number of countries brought in a tourist levy: in Italy, Venice is charging day tourists a fee as of spring 2024. Day-trippers are required to pay a fee of €5 a day, while the rate for overnight visitors ranges between €1 and €5 per night. The Indonesian government announced a tourist tax on travellers visiting Bali from 14 February 2024 of roughly £7.35 and from 1 October 2024, New Zealand's tourist tax tripled, so tourists entering the country must pay a fee of NZ$100, up from NZ$35.
Closer to home, from April 2023 tourists started to pay a £1 levy to stay in a hotel in Manchester – the first city in the UK to impose a tourist levy on visitors. Overnight guests in city centre hotels or holiday apartments are charged £1 a night, per room, as part of a new scheme that officials hope will raise £3 million a year.
Branded the ‘City Visitor Charge’ it will help to fund the new Manchester Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID), which aims to improve the visitor experience and support future growth of the visitor economy over the next five years.
Nearly 6,000 hotel rooms will be added to Manchester over the coming years, with predictions that it will lead to an extra one million overnight stays. In 2022, a referendum was held among hoteliers on whether or not to implement the fee, with four in five voting in favour.
