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The New Zealand Labor government has announced that it plans to introduce a tax on tourist arrivals from 2019 in order to find money for infrastructure burdened with an increasing number of visitors.The tax will amount to $ 24,40 per person, and will be charged from the middle of next year when obtaining a visa, writes Business diary. The government estimates that about $ 52 million will be raised on that basis, and Australian tourists, New Zealand’s most frequent foreign visitors, will be exempt from the tax.By the way, tourism is the main economic branch of New Zealand, and since 2015 the number of tourists has jumped by a third, while New Zealand can thank its tourist revival for the shooting of the mega-popular film, The Lord of the RingsOn the other side of the world or in our neighborhood, in Slovenia, guests will pay a tourist tax in addition to the tourist tax.In addition to the increased sojourn tax, tourists will soon be charged a promotional tax, which aims to improve Slovenian tourism, as defined by the new law adopted by the Slovenian parliament.The amount of the tourist tax will continue to be determined by the municipalities, with the new law increasing its maximum amount per day from the previous 1,265 euros to 2,50 euros, and the news is that tourists will now pay a promotional tax, which can be a quarter of the sojourn tax. .Photo: Slovenian Tourist BoardIn the worst case, in the most expensive destinations, the new amount of combined fees is 3,125 euros per day, which is 23 kuna per day, and the paid advertising fee will fill the budget of the Slovenian Tourist Board. By the way, a new regulation on the amount of sojourn tax was passed in Croatia last year, which has been in force since 2018. Thus, in accordance with the new regulation, the amount of the sojourn tax is determined in the range from HRK 2,50 to HRK 8,00, depending on the class of the tourist place and the seasonal period.It is interesting that the Ministry of Tourism calculates that the umbrella Slovenian tourist organization will earn an additional 4,7 million euros, while local communities and municipalities will earn another 6,9 million euros a year by increasing fees. Last year, 1,3 million domestic and 3 million tourists visited Slovenia, who spent 4 million nights. Of the foreigners, most Germans, Italians, Austrians, Croats and Serbs visited the country.A revolutionary idea or a total failure?It is interesting that instead of encouraging the development of tourism, ie the arrival of tourists in their country, with this “revolutionary idea” on the tourist market, Slovenia seems to charge for entry into its country, as in a museum. If you want to visit Slovenia – pay the entrance fee, more precisely 3 euros per day, per person. So in the case of New Zealand. If I can draw a parallel that immediately comes to mind, it is as in the case of restaurants that charge for setting the table, ie cutlery. Come, but pay taxes first.The promotional tax is exclusively a new fee paid by guests, and the Ministry of Tourism in Slovenia, with one decision, directly influenced the increase in the price of the entire destination, without tourists receiving any added value, increased service or the like.Personally, I consider this decision a failure, which reminds me of the ridiculous political moves when we talk about closing holes in the budget… raise taxes, VAT, new levies, additional health insurance, real estate tax, etc. građ. and here’s the money to patch holes in the budget. So in this case of advertising fees, the budget needs to be filled, so we will introduce a levy on tourists. The tourists we want to attract.You don’t need any intelligence, college or anything like that for such moves, anyone can be so “smart”. But strategically and planned to develop a tourist destination, create new tourist products or a smart strategy of promotion and branding in order to attract as many tourists to one tourist destination, which would generate tourist consumption, and thus fill the budget for better promotion of tourist destinations…. And for that you already have to think a little and fight in the market.Raising prices due to some whim, ie to fill the budget for the best possible promotion is, in my opinion, a total failure, which will negatively affect the competitiveness of Slovenia in a highly competitive tourist market.On the other hand, I can understand and only praise the need for New Zealand to curb mass tourism and environmental awareness and self-sustainability, it is also the goal of tourism, but to introduce a tourism tax to invest in that infrastructure is in my opinion as a tourist tax. fools. Do we want tourists or not?Certainly there are many ways to reduce the number of tourists to avoid over tourism, among other things the introduction of a tourist tax, and from year to year to increase or decrease the same, limit the number of entries, increase prices like many others. Also, tourist tax will not be paid by tourists from Australia, the main emitting market, so here we come to the issue of discrimination against all other tourists. When they were already so sure of their decision, then they should have introduced a tax on all tourists or they still calculated that it would significantly affect the decline in arrivals from Australia.However, the market is an open game, everyone is making their own way, and time will show how tourists will accept these changes and the introduction of new taxes at their expense, and how these measures will ultimately affect the overall tourism product and trends. Of course, if tourists are willing to pay additional taxes and if it turns out that these measures will not affect the decline in demand, the question arises again: Why not take that extra income?But these are all charms of an open market that is alive and well on the move, as is the whole economy.What is your opinion? As two chapters are always smarter than one and in order to argue the discussion, I invite you to engage in a constructive discussion on Facebook page. read more