I think that's right, or a visitor tax for day trippers like Venice has been doing. I think the hard part is the redistribution; it's a pretty hard sell to use hotel tax money to pay out residents in the nicest neighborhoods, given they're likely disproportionately high income (or at least have a highly valued home).
I do think that's probably a broader point - places like Barcelona probably have a harsher reaction to tourists because the benefits are distributed widely (via better municipal services that are hard to attribute) or perceived to only be for people in the service industry. Maybe a straight up UBI for residents in tourist hotspots might get more political buy-in?
Isn’t this what sales and hotel taxes are for?
Overtourism is an externality at the municipal level. Taxation prices that in.
Turning some of the revenue into a rebate for taxpayers completes the incentive loop.
I think that's right, or a visitor tax for day trippers like Venice has been doing. I think the hard part is the redistribution; it's a pretty hard sell to use hotel tax money to pay out residents in the nicest neighborhoods, given they're likely disproportionately high income (or at least have a highly valued home).
I do think that's probably a broader point - places like Barcelona probably have a harsher reaction to tourists because the benefits are distributed widely (via better municipal services that are hard to attribute) or perceived to only be for people in the service industry. Maybe a straight up UBI for residents in tourist hotspots might get more political buy-in?