Crimean ministry encourages local authorities to impose a tax on tourists

Ministry of resorts and tourism of Crimea appealed to the city, community and village councils autonomy with the proposal to introduce tourist tax of 1% of the cost of temporary accommodation. This was reported by the Minister of Resorts and Tourism Alexander Liev.

Thus, according to preliminary calculations Minkurortov, as a result of the introduction of such a charge and subject to the full detenizatsii tourist market to the local budgets can flow about 150 million USD annually. The minister also appealed to local authorities to send the funds to develop the resort and tourism industry, in particular, the modernization of the resort infrastructure, municipal facilities for the improvement of parks, parking lots, reconstruction of embankments, etc.

In addition, according to A. Liev, the introduction of tourism data collection will introduce a new criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of the tourism industry. The minister recalled that to date in Europe, the effectiveness of the tourism market is estimated at three indicators: the number of tourists, the amount of money they have left the region's economy, as well as the number of nights. "Evaluating the effectiveness of the tourism industry on the number of nights has never been applied in the Crimea because they could not be counted. With the introduction of tourism data collection, it becomes absolutely real, because we see how many nights spent at tourist spa treatment, how many people were housed in hotels, mini-resorts, as well as in private households, which also charged tourist tax "- said Head of Recreation department.

A. The Lie said that according to a new Tax Code, the tourist should be charged for Ukrainian citizens, foreigners and stateless persons who arrived on the territory of a region, where we have introduced such a tax.

However, from the payment of the fee exempt persons with disabilities, children with disabilities and persons accompanying them (no more than one attendant) Persons arriving on a business trip, veterans, persons who came under permits in sanatoria and boarding houses, liquidators at Chernobyl, etc.

As reported in Kamenetz-Podolsk, in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Mariupol, local authorities decided to introduce tourist tax of 1% of the cost of staying at the accommodation.

Intention to introduce such a tax last week, also said the authorities of Sevastopol and Simferopol, Evpatoria and Alushta.

Introduction of mandatory travel collection - a global trend. In particular, the desire to impose taxes on tourists in late 2010 announced in Lisbon, Rome, Venice, Barcelona and St Petersburg, Berlin, etc. In a number of cities such taxes are levied and now (they were especially popular in the U.S.).