As a follow up to my post of February 1 of this year, it is now quite well known that Venice has indeed brought in a tourist fee for a day trip to the beloved city.
But, what the press has been quite low key about, is a variety of other regions and cities are essentially doing the same thing.
These are presently ranging from Spain to Hawaii, and various places in between.
As always, there is a decision taken (this case Venice) and then, there are the followers.
It’s happening all over Spain at present. I mention Spain, because of the sheer numbers who do go there from the UK. In fact, I’ll be going to Mallorca in June, in order to watch the Mallorca Open grass court tennis tournament.
I hope they let me in!
The Canaries are also trying to reign in the constant numbers of tourists – Spain’s Canary Islands plan tighter short term rental rules with police backup (msn.com)
Seville as well:
The locals here in Seville have the usual two concerns:
– Tourists are “toxic”.
– Airbnb is out of control, which leads to less flats for citizens in these places.
The below links, to a variety of places, emphasize that this is now a wide concern, and appears to be an issue that will NOT subside.
Amsterdam doesn’t want any more tourists – so here are 10 alternatives (msn.com)
Portugal’s war on holidaymakers continues as popular city considers doubling tourist tax (msn.com)
British tourists issued Spain holiday warning over new ‘ban’ this summer (msn.com)
Tourists avoid Scotland because of SNP crackdown on short-term lets (msn.com)
Solutions – Are there any?
As someone who travels quite a lot, with my next trip to Porto or Northern Ireland to see a brother(s) of mine, next week, I can well understand both the concerns of the tourist, as well as the people who live in these tourist areas.
At present I’ve a holiday home in a picturesque area of Scotland, that as of last week, has started to become inundated with tourists. Though many in the local community, as the town is small, rely on them for certain portions of the year for their income (or at least a part of it).
I put up with them, and they are really not that bad! OTOH, at times the traffic is outrageous. This makes me furious, as I’ve always wondered why people who want to “get away from it all“, are at the same time driving through the village as if it’s a friggin motorway!
In addition, as this is not our main residence, as of this year we’ve now been hit with a double council tax from the local Council.
Is this really a solution? I’m still not sure, as we will not only pay it, but at the same time will have no intention of all of a sudden, selling it to a “local”. I say local, as we’re there for about 7 – 10 days a month, and consider ourselves to be “locals”. And besides, just what does the local Council do with this new found money? I seriously doubt that they’ve set up a special trust fund with it, in order to assist locals in find accommodation!
Alternatively, I can certainly understand when certain local people can not find a flat either for sell, or to rent for the long term.
An obvious solution comes from countries who have already experienced something like this. Germany is one that comes to mind, and one where I have first-hand experience of.
There, it has always been the case for many of the states to have a cap / limit, on the number of Ferienwohnungen (holiday houses) that a specific area is allowed to have.
This seems like common sense, and it also does not punish someone like myself, who has bought a second property, and then later, is expected to be taxed double for it.
CB
Curious Bystander 