Tourism taxes in Italy: A sustainable perspective
Journal Title: Journal of Global Business Insights - Year 2019, Vol 4, Issue 2
Abstract
In Italy, a tourism tax was introduced in 2011, since then it has been adopted in most of the Italian provincial capitals and tourist cities. This tax can mitigate the negative externalities caused by tourists; however, it should be carefully planned both in terms of the amount of money to be levied and in terms of the uses to be financed with the tax revenues, it could, otherwise, negatively impact the tourism sector, decreasing—rather than increasing— the social welfare. The aim of this paper is to assess the acceptability of such a tax and to examine how the tax should be designed to better meet tourists’ preferences while improving tourism sustainability. To this aim, a Contingent Valuation experiment has been performed for two Apulian touristic towns: Otranto and Castro. The results demonstrate that the willingness to pay (WTP) for the tourism tax depends not only on the vacation and the tourist type but also on how the fiscal revenues are used. If no mention is made of the use of the tax revenues, the WTP can be as low as €0.85 per person per night, which is much lower than the tax actually levied. Instead, if the tax revenues are used to improve and to protect the environment, the WTP can be as high as €3.96. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research paper estimating the WTP in the Italian context based on tax revenue use.
Authors and Affiliations
Lucia Rotaris, Marta Carrozzo
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP656662
- DOI 10.5038/2640-6489.4.2.1079
- Views 85
- Downloads 0
Factors affecting medical tourism destination selection: A Malaysian perspective
The study aims to assess the factors for medical tourism destination selection from medical tourist’s perspective and to determine the satisfaction level of medical tourists in Malaysia. Field survey was conducted with t...
Case study of comprehensive benefit evaluation and management of forest ecosystem services in Zhalantun city of Inner Mongolia, China
Based on official statistics and on-site investigation, this paper firstly used Direct Market Evaluation Method (DMEM), Indirect Market Evaluation Method (IMEM) etc. evaluated the comprehensive benefits for forest ecosys...
Furthering the debate on globalization’s origins: New evidence
Throughout recorded human history there have been small shifts in how humans have interacted with each other. The ancient empires of the Far East, Near East, and Europe emerged from the city and city-states, tribe and co...
Returns of merger and acquisition activities in the gaming industry
The gaming industry experienced numerous merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in the 1990s. This study examines the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) for gaming target and bidding firms around the announcement of mer...
Storytelling in destination brand communication: A qualitative analysis
Stories help consumers to make sense of the product and/or services in marketing and branding. Especially in tourism, storytelling is an effective channel for destination brand communication. Stories are powerful because...