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There has been a lot of chatter over the past few months about Amsterdam. Local politicians have referred to cruise line guests as a “plague of locusts” descending upon the city and were talking about banning ships all together but then later, wisely, backtracked on that dumb idea.
Well, they seem to have found a happy compromise and that is simply upping the tax on visitors by a ton, that is, by 38% for us Frequent Floaters. Per CrewCenter the old fee to visit the city was 8 Euros and will jump to 11 Euros next year.
They are also jumping the tax for non-cruisers as well and will have, once in effect, the largest tourist tax in Europe of 12.5%!
Having spent much of my life growing up in Sweden I am very familiar with heavy tax on things that governments want to discourage (all alcohol is sold in state run liquor stores and tax is 40% on hard liquor – lower for wine and beer). In my experience this does not dissuade drinking it just adds more money to the government and I see the same thing with the new Amsterdam policy.
You can bet that other port cities will be looking at just how much cruisers will tolerate and up their fees as well. As an example of this Barcelona recently jumped their VAT tax until you get out to sea and away from the port and that even includes prepaid beverage packages that get you drinks “free” each day.
Will this jump move me to avoid itineraries that include Amsterdam? No, but with prices going up for everything at some point it may impact my budget of how much I can spend on shore excursions and so on.
What do you think of this move by Amsterdam or other cities looking to extract as much revenue as possible from tourists? – René
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Like Venice there is a huge “over abundance” of cruise ships stopping in for day trips that coupled with the increasing amount of cruise ships originating / ending trips produces a strain on the local infrastructure. Sure there is the argument ” we pour money ” into the local coffers but at what costs? I fully believe that as a tourist these municipalities have the right and should tax. Having said that of course there is the old saying ” don’t kill the golden goose” I have been to Venice a number of times over the years finding it almost impossible to even walk around when ships land for the day and frankly the lack of decorum from some of the cruisers and their minders.
Like Venice there is a huge “over abundance” of cruise ships stopping in for day trips that coupled with the increasing amount of cruise ships originating / ending trips produces a strain on the local infrastructure. Sure there is the argument ” we pour money ” into the local coffers but at what costs? I fully believe that as a tourist these municipalities have the right and should tax. Having said that of course there is the old saying ” don’t kill the golden goose” I have been to Venice a number of times over the years finding it almost impossible to even walk around when ships land for the day and frankly the lack of decorum from some of the cruisers and their minders.