Cover story
investment to maintain our position as
one of the world’s best destinations,
without compromising the city
experience for those who live here? A
tourist tax is a proven model.”
Meanwhile, the Interlocal
Agreements which govern and
regulate transient visitor taxes and the
operation of Visitor and Convention
Bureaux in the USA get straight to the
point.
For instance, Albany CVB in New
York State is simply required to
“promote Albany County, its cities,
towns and villages in order to increase
convention, trade show and tourist
business” and the Greater Miami CVB
can use these incomes for “developing,
promoting, marketing, booking and
securing conventions, tradeshows and
group business” activities.
Significantly, these bureaux are
supervised by industry-led
management boards and directors are
required, again by law, to a) evaluate
the performance of the bureau’s Chief
Executive Officer (i.e. hire and fire), b)
set bureau policies, c) provide
community access and political
direction and d) approve work
programmes and monitor budgets.
Significantly, these board directors
come only from the private sector,
usually hotel and restaurant owners,
travel companies and attractions, local
media and even local bank managers
(local politicians are not allowed to be
CVB directors).
Transient visitor tax incomes also
provide American CVBs with staff
resources. The executive team
employed by the Norfolk CVB in
Virginia, population 245,000 – about
the same size as Plymouth, UK -
comprised: Executive Director,
Director of Marketing, Director of
Convention Sales, Director of Tourism
Services, seven Tourism Services
Managers, five Sales Managers,
administrative staff and I suspect
that’s a great deal more staff resources
than is, or ever has been, available to
Plymouth Tourism?
of ‘Occupancy’ or ‘Transient Visitor’
taxes that are currently being levied
across the EU.
Nearly 20 EU member states,
including France, Germany, Greece,
Italy, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland,
currently apply country-specific forms
of the transient visitor tax at city,
municipality or provincial levels, with
comparatively low rates charged in the
eastern EU countries and much higher
rates in Western and South-Eastern
Europe.
Tourism-related taxes are also
applied in other parts of the world,
such as Indonesia, Thailand and
Singapore. And, of course, Air
Passenger Duty applies globally, but it
is not hypothecated and it applies to
outbound travel only.
US ‘taxing’
destination;
clockwise
from top left:
1 – Norfolk
2 – New York
3 – Miami
4 –– Albany.
Philip Cooke is MD of
the UK-based
Destination Marketing
Group and he has
studied, worked and
travelled extensively
across the USA.
www.ec.europa.eu
The European Commission’s website
(www.ec.europa.eu) contains much
information about the extensive range
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