Free Republic

Scotland’s capital Edinburgh is to become the first British city to introduce a tourist tax to try to better manage the impact of swelling visitor numbers and booming hotel occupancy, its council said on Thursday. […] The council said it would use funds raised by the £2 ($2.60) per room per night tax “to improve facilities and better manage the city”, as other European cities such as Barcelona and Rome have done. The tourist tax has been unpopular with some businesses, however. A survey conducted by the council found only a narrow 51 percent of accommodation-providers supported the idea, which...

Norway is currently enjoying a newfound level of popularity amongst tourists. Spurred in part by “the Frozen effect” that has seen tourism rise sharply since Disney’s 2013 film Frozen, which was developed with the support of Norway’s tourism agency, some officials began warning that the country was experiencing “too much of a good thing”. Now a number of politicians are suggesting the implementation of a tourist tax to help local communities deal with the influx of visitors. Local Nordland party leaders of the Socialist Left Party, the Christian Democrats, the Liberals and the Red Party have backed a new tourist...

Liberal Democrats never recognize the power of taxation to change individual behavior while they are lusting after our tax dollars. As socialists they have very limited knowledge of the concept of dynamic scoring in taxing policy (the effect of taxation on how people live their everyday lives). Conservatives understand taxation changes consumer attitudes and behavior, but Liberals only admit this when they’re voting to raise taxes on behaviors they claim not to like such as smoking drinking alcoholic beverages gambling and cruising on large yachts. Simple observation continually proves conservatives are right and liberals are wrong on this point. USA...