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.
Keywords
tourism sustainability, tourism tax, tourists’ preferences, contingent valuation
Chinese Abstract
意大利的旅游税收:可持续发展视角
意大利于2011年开始实施旅游税收,此后其大部分省会及旅游城市均采纳了该政策。尽管此项税收可减少由游客造成的负面外部影响,然而在征收金额及税收收益用途方面需进行周密规划,否则可能对旅游业造成负面影响,导致社会福利的减少而非增加。本文旨在评估此税收的可接受性,探讨如何设计才能在更好的满足游客需求的同时增进旅游发展的可持续性。为此,本文对两个阿普利亚旅游城镇(奥特朗托及卡斯楚)进行意愿调查价值评估实验。结果显示,旅游税的支付意愿(WTP)不仅取决于度假及旅客类型,也取决于财政收入的使用方式。若不提及税收的用途,则旅客愿意支付的旅游税可低至每人每晚0.85欧元,远低于实际征收的数额。相反,若将税收用于改善及保护环境,则此数额可高达3.96欧元。据作者了解,本文是首篇基于税收用途估算在意大利背景下支付旅游税意愿的研究论文。
关键词:旅游可持续性,旅游税,旅客偏好,意愿调查价值评估
DOI
10.5038/2640-6489.4.2.1079
Recommended Citation
Rotaris, L., & Carrozzo, M. (2019). Tourism taxes in Italy: A sustainable perspective. Journal of Global Business Insights, 4(2), 92-105. https://www.doi.org/10.5038/2640-6489.4.2.1079
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