Amsterdam’s new tax puts city’s tourist taxes among Europe’s highest

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18. Dubrovnik, Croatia – Dubrovnik, which skyrocketed in popularity after “Game of Thrones” scenes were filmed there, is taking measures to reduce the number of day visitors from cruise ships. More than 280,000 visited between January and June of 2018. In 2017, 749,000 tourists visited. Now, there will be no more than 4,000 tourists allowed in the Old City at any time, even though the UNESCO recommendation is 8,000. leighcol / Getty Images

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Planning a trip to Amsterdam in 2020? You’ll need to budget a little extra for your accommodations.

Starting Jan. 1, the city willcharge a flat fee of €3 (about $3.25) per person, per night for any visitor spending the night in Amsterdam. That’s on top of the 7% tourist tax currently in effect. (Private Airbnb and houseboat owners are also required to collect the 7% tax and pay the city.)

The flat tax on campsites will be €1 (about $1.10) per person per night. 

“It will likely make Amsterdam’s the highest overnight tax in Europe, on average,” Tim Fairhurst, director of policy for the European Tourism Association, told CNN. 

KHN Amsterdam, a hospitality industry lobbying group, protested the new flat tax when it was first proposed in February.

“No other country in Europe charges a percentage and a flat fee,” KHN chairman Pim Evers told Dutch News.”And that money does not go into a tourism strategy, or to make the city a better place to live, or to combat problems. It gets swallowed up into the city’s general resources.”

In January, Amsterdam began imposing a day tourist tax on river and sea cruise passengers making a port call there. However, the €8 (about $9.80)  per-day fee does not apply to passengers whose cruises originate or end there.

The cruise line is responsible for declaring the number of passengers and paying the tax to the Port of Amsterdam.