World Travel & Tourism Tax Barometer

In 1995, the WTTC inaugurated the World Travel & Tourism Tax Barometer, designed by the World Travel & Tourism Tax Policy Center at Michigan State University, with the objective of identifying changes over the previous period in the most rapidly growing taxes affecting travelers and Travel & Tourism companies.

The Tax Barometer is an economic index report that was developed to track and monitor the changes in taxes on travelers and travel companies in more than 50 high-traffic destinations worldwide.

The Barometer represents an index of taxes paid by a hypothetical 'WTTC Traveler' at each destination. The base year tax rates, prices and exchange rates were fixed as of June 15, 1994. The index numbers reflect the cumulative change in the amount of tax paid in US dollars as of June 2002.

The objectives of the Tax Barometer are:

To demonstrate the real impact of increases often buried in consumer prices
To identify new taxation initiatives and trends
To analyze the effect on Travel & Tourism exports, jobs, and international competitiveness

The Barometer provides details on taxes in a number of key areas:

Meal taxes
Lodging taxes
Car rental taxes
Airport arrival/departure taxes

As well as identifying major changes both upwards and downwards in each market surveyed, the Tax Barometer also includes an analysis of the nature, and, where available, reasons for the change.

The Tax Barometer is in Adobe Acrobat format. To view the Barometer, you must download the Acrobat Reader or have Acrobat 4.0 or higher installed on your computer.

Download Tax Barometer #11.pdf - June 2002

Past Issues of the Barometer:
Tax Barometer #10.pdf - December 2001
Tax Barometer #10a.pdf - December 2001
Tax Barometer #9.pdf - January 2001
Tax Barometer #8.pdf - January 2000
Tax Barometer #7.pdf - February 1999
Tax Barometer #6.pdf - November 1998
Tax Barometer #5.pdf - January 1998
Tax Barometer #4.pdf - April 1997
(1-3 are not available on line)

INFORMATION ON INDIVIDUAL CITIES:

Each of the 52 cities monitored by the Tax Policy Center has its own separate page with information from each of the Tax Barometers.

Each city page features:

Information on the current tax rates on hotel rooms, restaurant meals, car rentals, and airport service charges.
When and why tax increases or decreases occurred.
A brief explanation of the types of taxes associated with Travel & Tourism.

If you are interested in the Travel & Tourism taxes associated with a specific city, you may choose the city from a list, map, or from the dropdown box below.

Select city from list
Select city from map

COMPARING CITIES:

To see how a particular city compares to the other cities in the Tax Barometer, you may view the overall rankings in the areas of total tax expenditures, total tax rate, and overall increase or decrease in the tax rate since 1994.

Taxation is a rapidly growing area of travel costs that, if not contained, can contribute to rising prices and declining competitiveness. For this reason, WTTC makes the case for fair and intelligent taxation in its dealings with governments and international organizations.

Fair taxes are those which do not discriminate against travelers or travel companies in relation to other goods and services. Discrimination may occur through:

Hidden taxes that can be increased without consumer awareness
Deliberate targeting of taxation on travelers who have no local political influence

Unfair taxes and discrimination can occur when governments ignore the actual or potential export value of Travel & Tourism.

Intelligent taxation involves taxation that makes a link between Travel & Tourism, economic growth and jobs. Governments should tax in a way that promotes the growth of the travel market- increasing the tax base, rather than simply hiking tax rates and turning down demand. This requires a long-term perspective, in addition to the inevitable short-range focus on balancing budgets.

The WTTC has been actively expounding these messages in its reports, as well as at an institutional level nationally, regionally, and internationally, since the earliest days of operation.

Acknowledgements: The Tax Barometer has been compiled with the assistance of several hotel operators. This network of professionals can take great credit for verifying the data on which these and future reports are based.