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BUSINESS
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2024
TRAVEL
A new tourist fee in Bali. Higher
hotel taxes in Amsterdam and
Paris. Stricter rules on public
drinking in Milan and Majorca.
Ahead of the summer travel sea-
son, leaders in many tourist spots
have adopted measures to tame
the tourist crowds — or at least
earn more revenue from them.
All of this may pose headaches
for travelers, although in most
cases, the new fees or tax in-
creases represent only a tiny frac-
tion of the total cost of a trip. The
goal is to ensure that tourism
functions smoothly for visitors
and locals alike, said Megan Epler
Wood, managing director of the
Sustainable Tourism Asset Man-
agement Program at Cornell Uni-
versity.
“All tourism is dependent on
beautiful natural and cultural re-
sources. You have to protect those
resources in order to be a viable
tourism destination — and if you
don’t, they degrade,” Ms. Epler
Wood said.
In some places, proposals for
new fees or visitor rules have
drawn opposition from residents,
who fear they might scare away
the tourists who bolster the local
economy.
But destinations need to find
ways to counteract what Ms.
Epler Wood calls “the invisible
burden” of tourism, which in-
cludes strains on a community’s
infrastructure, utilities and hous-
ing stock, as well as tourists’ car-
bon footprint and any challenges
they might impose on residents’
daily lives.
“You put so much pressure on
the place that the people who live
there become unhappy, and then
they don’t present a very good
face to tourists,” Ms. Epler Wood
said. “The longer you wait, the
higher the cost to fix it.”
Here is a look at new measures
that travelers can expect this
summer, and where others might
be coming in the future.
New visitor fees
Since February, visitors to the In-
donesian island of Bali have been
asked to pay a levy of 150,000 In-
donesian rupiahs, or about $9.40
per visit. Revenue will be used to
support the preservation of cul-
tural and natural assets on the is-
land, where tourism has brought
major challenges related to litter,
water supply and overcrowding.
Visitors are encouraged to pay the
new fee online before departure,
although it’s also possible to pay
on arrival at the airport.
Beginning Aug. 1, most foreign
travelers to the Galápagos Islands
— which had a record-breaking
330,000 visitors last year — must
pay a $200 entry fee, double the
current rate. The money raised
will be used to support conserva-
tion, improve infrastructure and
fund community programs.
The change is the first increase
to the entry fee since it was intro-
duced in 1998, said Tom O’Hara,
communications manager for the
Galápagos Conservation Trust.
Mr. O’Hara noted that the in-
crease comes a year after the UN-
ESCO World Heritage Committee
urged the government of Ecuador
to work toward a “zero-growth
model” for tourism in the Galápa-
gos.
“It’s quite a complicated topic,”
Mr. O’Hara said, noting that the
fee increase has been viewed “as
part of the solution to over-
tourism.” On the other hand, he
added, “everyone is trying to re-
assure the local tourist industry
that this isn’t going to kill tourism
on the islands.”
In April, Venice began imposing
a fee — 5 euros, about $5.40 — on
day-trippers visiting on peak
days, with the goal of striking “a
new balance between the tourists
and residents.”
But the new Venice Access Fee
has drawn criticism from resi-
dents. “This project is a disaster
for us. We are a city, not a park,”
said Matteo Secchi, the president
of Venessia.com, an association of
Venice residents. Mr. Secchi said
that a communications campaign
would have been more effective.
The possibility of a new tourist
fee has also drawn local opposi-
tion in Hawaii, where Gov. Josh
Green has proposed a “climate im-
pact fee” for visitors to the state.
The measure failed during a re-
cent meeting of the State Legisla-
ture, but Governor Green has per-
sisted in calling for visitors to help
fund the state’s preparation for fu-
ture climate shocks.
“We have to get this tiger by the
tail,” he told journalists in May,
adding that $25 per visitor could
raise $250 million a year, which
the state could use to guard
against climate disasters, manage
erosion, strengthen infrastruc-
ture and protect parks.
Hotel fees and other taxes
Hotel taxes, also known as occu-
pancy or accommodation taxes,
are widespread in the United
States and Europe, where they
were on the rise for a decade lead-
ing up to the pandemic. With tour-
ism’s rebound to prepandemic lev-
els, several destinations have in-
creased or adjusted the tax to cap-
ture more revenue.
Like Hawaii, Greece — which
also suffered severe wildfires last
summer — is looking to steel itself
against climate disasters, and the
government wants tourists to
help foot the bill.
Greece is calling the charge a
climate crisis resilience fee, and it
will be collected by accommoda-
tion providers. The tax will be
higher from March to October,
when it will top out at €10 per night
at five-star hotels. The rate drops
from November to February, and
for hotels with fewer stars. The fee
replaces the previous hotel tax,
which ranged from €0.50 to €4 per
night.
In Amsterdam, the hotel tax,
which was already one of the high-
est in Europe, rose to 12.5 percent
from 7 percent on Jan. 1. City law-
makers have also raised the tax on
cruise passengers to €14 from €11
per person per night.
The hotel tax in Barcelona also
rose this year, increasing to €3.25
per night. The measure was the fi-
nal step-up in a gradual increase
that began before the pandemic. A
spokesman for Barcelona City
Hall said that further tax in-
creases would be aimed at tourist
rental apartments and cruises
that make short stopovers, which
contribute less to the city’s in-
come. The spokesman also noted
that revenue generated by the
tourist tax is being used, among
other things, to fund the installa-
tion of solar panels and air-condi-
tioning in Barcelona’s public
schools.
Ahead
of
this
summer’s
Olympic and Paralympic Games
in Paris, lawmakers in the Île-de-
France region have imposed a
new tax, on top of the normal hotel
levy. With the new tax, which will
fund public transportation in the
region, a guest in a five-star hotel
now owes a total of €10.73 in tax
per night stayed, while a stay in a
two-star hotel incurs a tax of €3.25
per night.
Though
the
measure
was
adopted by the regional govern-
ment, it was not supported by the
leadership in Paris itself. A
spokeswoman for Paris City Hall
called the move “a democratic
power grab” that “in no way bene-
fits the city of Paris.” She noted
that even with the funds generat-
ed by the new tax, the region still
raised the price of tickets for pub-
lic transportation in the city dur-
ing the Olympics — a measure
that has disgruntled many Paris
residents.
Introducing new rules
In other tourist spots, the focus is
on curbing behavior that pollutes
the local environment or harms
residents’ quality of life.
In Japan, authorities at Mount
Fuji will cap visitors at 4,000 per
day. They have also imposed a
new fee of 2,000 yen (about $13)
for access to the iconic summit.
Elsewhere in the country, a com-
munity council in the Gion neigh-
borhood of Kyoto has closed some
small roads to tourists, after com-
plaints that the area, home to the
city’s geisha district, was suffer-
ing from crowds.
“We will ask tourists to refrain
from entering narrow private
streets in or after April,” Isokazu
Ota, a leading member of the com-
munity council, told Agence-
France Presse in March. “We
don’t want to do this, but we’re
desperate.”
A spokeswoman for the city’s
tourism board described the road
closures as “a local initiative,”
adding that “neither Kyoto City
nor the Kyoto City Tourism Asso-
ciation are aware of any details be-
yond what is reported in the me-
dia.”
Rowdy visitor behavior has
been the target of new rules in Mi-
lan. In some areas, city leaders
have banned outdoor seating af-
ter 12:30 a.m. during the week and
1:30 a.m. on the weekend in re-
sponse to resident complaints.
They have also limited the late-
night sale of takeaway food and
drinks.
And in certain areas on the
Spanish Balearic Islands of Ma-
jorca and Ibiza that are overrun
with drunk tourists, the govern-
ment has imposed a ban on late-
night sales of alcohol and the con-
sumption of alcohol in the street.
New restrictions have also been
imposed on party boats in the
same areas.
“Tourism has negative exter-
nalities that must be managed and
minimized,” Marga Prohens, the
president of the Balearic Islands,
told a local gathering this month,
according to The Majorca Daily
Bulletin. Local tourism, she said,
“cannot continue to grow in vol-
ume.”
You’ll Have to Pay More and Behave Better on Vacation
By PAIGE McCLANAHAN
Visitors to Bali must now pay a fee of 150,000 Indonesian rupiahs, or about
$9.40. Where tourism has brought major challenges (litter, water supply,
overcrowding), revenue will be used to preserve cultural and natural assets.
SONNY TUMBELAKA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
MADE NAGI/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
An American Airlines passenger
who kicked and spat at flight at-
tendants and passengers and at-
tempted to open the cabin door be-
fore she was secured to a seat with
duct tape has been sued by the
Federal Aviation Administration
for $81,950, the largest-ever fine
assessed by the agency for unruly
behavior.
The passenger, Heather Wells,
34, of San Antonio, was traveling
first class from the Dallas-Fort
Worth International Airport in
Texas to the Charlotte Douglas In-
ternational Airport in Charlotte,
N.C., on July 7, 2021. About an hour
into the flight she ordered a
whiskey and became agitated and
said she “wanted out” of the plane,
according to a lawsuit filed on
June 3 in U.S. District Court for the
Western District of Texas.
Ms. Wells began running to-
ward the back of the plane, where
she dropped to her knees in the
aisle and began “talking incoher-
ently to passengers, before crawl-
ing back toward the main cabin,”
the lawsuit said.
When a flight attendant re-
sponded, Ms. Wells “became ver-
bally aggressive and told the
flight attendant that she would
‘hurt him’ if he didn’t get out of her
way,” according to the court docu-
ment.
She then pushed him and
moved to the front of the plane
where she “lunged toward and at-
tempted to grab” the cabin door,
“all the while screaming and
yelling profanities.”
That was when two flight at-
tendants and a passenger tried to
physically restrain Ms. Wells, who
struck one of the flight attendants
in the head multiple times, the
lawsuit said.
They were able to restrain her
with duct tape and flex cuffs and
place her on a seat. But she contin-
ued to “kick and spit and at-
tempted to bite and head butt,”
which “necessitated” Ms. Wells to
be further restrained with tape, in-
cluding on her mouth, according
to the suit.
The captain determined that
landing in Charlotte would be the
quickest resolution, and law en-
forcement officers were waiting
for the plane’s arrival, according
to the lawsuit.
Ms. Wells continued to act vio-
lently once officers boarded,
breaking the seat in front of her,
before she was sedated and re-
moved from the plane.
Ms. Wells told KENS 5 in San
Antonio that she was having men-
tal health issues and apologized in
a statement.
“I know that it was not rational
and I was not actually in any ex-
ternal dangers, but at the time I
was genuinely afraid for my life,”
the statement read. “Words can’t
express how sorry I am for the
fear I caused and the people I
hurt.”
Ms. Wells, who could not be
reached for comment, told the
news station that after she was
taken off the plane, she was kept
in a hospital for observation and
that she does not have a lawyer.
No lawyer was listed on the court
documents, and American Air-
lines did not return a request for
comment on Saturday. It was un-
clear if Ms. Wells was ever for-
mally charged.
According to the lawsuit, Ms.
Wells is liable for a civil penalty of
$45,000 for her violent behavior
toward the crew and passengers;
$27,950 for attempting to open the
cabin door; and $9,000 for inter-
fering with the performance of
crew members’ duties, totaling
$81,950.
The fines were proposed by the
F.A.A. in 2022, at which point Ms.
Wells had 30 days to respond.
They came on the heels of a
sweeping zero-tolerance policy
meant to target soaring reports of
aggressive
behavior
by
pas-
sengers.
According to F.A.A. data, those
incidents have dropped substan-
tially: In 2021, there were nearly
6,000 reports of unruly pas-
sengers, dropping to 2,455 in 2022,
and 2,075 in 2023. So far this year,
885 cases have been reported.
But in a statement this week,
the agency warned against bad
behavior as summer travel be-
gins.
Record Fine
For Traveler
Restrained
By Duct Tape
By REMY TUMIN
A Texas passenger is being sued by
the Federal Aviation Administration.
GENE J. PUSKAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS