miami beach tourist tax

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Miami Beach looks to insure tourism tax revenue

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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Miami Beach’s tourism industry has suffered one blow after another in recent years.

First, Brazil’s economy tanked and a strong U.S. dollar prompted would-be international travelers to stay home. Then Zika scared off visitors. By the time Hurricane Irma hit last September, hotels and other tourism-dependent businesses were already reeling.

And it wasn’t just the tourism industry that suffered. Miami Beach’s tax revenue also took a hit.

Now, the city is considering a novel solution: an insurance policy for resort tax revenue to help make up for unexpected budget shortfalls.

Resort taxes, which include taxes levied on hotel stays and restaurant tabs, make up more than 10 percent of Miami Beach’s primary operating budget and contributed about $83 million to city coffers last fiscal year. The money can be used to help pay for tourism-related expenses, like construction on the Miami Beach Convention Center and maintenance at South Beach parks, for example.

“It’s a very large revenue source for us,” said John Woodruff, the city’s chief finance officer. “Resort taxes tend to be pretty variable depending on economic conditions. They can move around on you. “

While resort tax revenue usually grows by 3 to 5 percent a year, Woodruff said, the amount of money the city collected stayed almost flat between the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years.

That got city officials thinking. An emergency response committee convened last year with representatives from the tourism industry came up with recommendations. Among them: Take out an insurance policy for resort taxes. Miami Beach has asked an insurance broker to run the numbers on how much such a policy would cost. The request is more complicated than it might seem — the city would likely be the first in the country to insure its resort tax revenue.

“We’re obviously just in the exploratory phase, but it’s interesting and it may be something that provides a measure of confidence and continuity,” Mayor Dan Gelber said. “It’s not unlike the business interruption insurance that is available in the private sector for often the same events. We have a very unique economy so thinking about ways to protect it makes sense.”

The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau declined to comment on the proposal until more information is available.

Although the details are still being worked out, the insurance policy would depend on certain triggers, said Sonia Bridges, the city’s division director for risk management and benefits. If winds reached a certain speed or water rose to a certain level during a hurricane, for example, or if Miami Beach saw an unexpected drop in resort tax revenue, the city would automatically get an insurance payout.

This type of insurance policy, known as parametric insurance, is still fairly new in the United States, Bridges said. Miami Beach already has more traditional types of insurance, like property insurance for publicly owned buildings, but has no insurance on its tax revenue.

“We’re making sure that as a city we’re resilient whether it’s mosquito-borne illnesses or unforeseen circumstances that could potentially hurt the economy,” said Commissioner Micky Steinberg, who served as the chair of the emergency response committee. “We’re looking at creative ways to protect revenue and the community at large.”

So far this year, things are looking up for Miami Beach’s tourism industry — and for the city’s bottom line. Resort tax revenue is on track to increase by 10 percent this fiscal year, Woodruff said. But with a busy hurricane season looming, an insurance policy could give city officials more certainty when they come up with a budget.

“It gives you stability and predictability that you would not normally have,” Woodruff said. “Even if something abnormal happened, you’d always get a certain amount of revenue.” And if the idea works for resort taxes, he added, it could also be applied to other volatile sources of revenue, like the money the city gets from parking.

Miami Herald staff writer Chabeli Herrera contributed to this report.

Information from: The Miami Herald, http://www.herald.com

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• Travel News

Tourist Taxes Are Rising at Some of the World's Most Popular Destinations

Seemingly everywhere you look, tourist fees are cropping up or increasing right now..

Published on 4/22/2024 at 4:35 PM

If you love to travel, chances are you love international travel even more than its domestic counterpart—and as you might’ve guessed, you’re not alone.

With travel in full bloom since the peak pandemic days, in the past two years popular cities and destinations have reported sky-high tourism numbers. While that is, on one hand, a great thing for a city’s local economy and its tourism industry, it can also pose a threat to the city itself. That threat has a name, and it’s overtourism, which can lead to damage to nature as well as culture and heritage, not to mention the alienation of local residents, a poor tourist experience, and overloaded infrastructure, among other challenges.

In an effort to curb the phenomenon and help make the tourism industry more sustainable, many cities across the globe have opted for a monetary solution through a tourist tax—or, if one already existed, they increased the fee of it. Other cities, like Como, Italy , haven’t laid out an exact plan for a tourist tax, but have announced that one is in the works.

This year, many bucket-list destinations made headlines for either introducing or renewing their tourist fees, while still others are still mulling it all over . To help you better plan your next vacation abroad (especially from a financial standpoint) we put together a handy guide featuring all the hottest destinations that have recently added new tourist fees or increased the preexisting ones. This guide will be updated based on any new tourist fee plans.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

When: Already in place New tourist tax cost: 12.5% of overnight stay (compared to previous 7%); for cruises, tourist tax is €11 (roughly $12) per person per day (compared to previous €8 (roughly $9)

Bali, Indonesia

When: Already in place ( started on February 14 ) New tourist tax cost: 150,000 IDR (roughly $10) per person

Barcelona, Spain

When: Already in place (started on April 1) New tourist tax cost: €3.25 (roughly $3.50 per person per night only paid for the first seven consecutive days (compared to previous €2.75 per night, which is roughly $3)

When: Already in place ( started on January 1 ) New tourist tax cost: 333 ISK (roughly $2.40) per overnight stay; for cruises, 1000 ISK (roughly $7.20) per overnight stay

Manchester, UK

When: Already in place (started on April 1, 2023) New tourist tax cost: £1 (roughly $1.25) per room per night

Olhão, Portugal

When: Already in place (started in June 2023) New tourist tax cost: €2 (roughly $2.1) per night during high season (April to October) and €1 (roughly $1) during the rest of the year (November to March) for a maximum of five nights in a row

When: Already in place ( started in 2023 ) New tourist tax cost: 300 baht (roughly $9) if arriving by air and 150 baht (roughly $4) if arriving by land or water. The fee must only be paid once

Valencia, Spain

When: Not yet defined, expected in 2024 New tourist tax cost: €2 (roughly $2.1) compared to previous €0.50 (roughly $0.53)

Venice, Italy

When: Already in place (on peak weekends and other days between April and mid-July for a total of 29 days and only during peak hours from 8:30am until 4pm) New tourist tax cost: €5 (roughly $5.4) for daily visitors (overnight travelers and locals are exempt)

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The minimum combined 2024 sales tax rate for Miami Beach, Florida is . This is the total of state, county and city sales tax rates. The Florida sales tax rate is currently % . The County sales tax rate is %. The Miami Beach sales tax rate is % .

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Venice tests a 5-euro entry fee for day-trippers as the city grapples with overtourism.

Colleen Barry

Associated Press

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Stewards check tourists QR code access outside the main train station in Venice, Italy, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The fragile lagoon city of Venice begins a pilot program Thursday to charge daytrippers a 5 euro entry fee that authorities hope will discourage tourists from arriving on peak days. The daytripper tax is being tested on 29 days through July, mostly weekends and holidays starting with Italy's Liberation Day holiday Thursday. Officials expect some 10,000 people will pay the fee to access the city on the first day, downloading a QR code to prove their payment, while another 70,000 will receive exceptions, for example, because they work in Venice or live in the Veneto region. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

VENICE – Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice's main train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates through July of the plan's test phase that also designated separate entrances for tourists, and residents, students and workers.

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“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said Simone Venturini, the city’s top tourism official. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism , insisting that only a resurgence in the population will restore balance to a city where narrow alleyways and water buses are often clogged with tourists.

Hundreds of Venetians protested against the program, marching festively though the city's main bus terminal behind banners reading “No to Tickets, Yes to Services and Housing.” Protesters scuffled briefly with police with riot gear who blocked them from entering the city, before changing course and entering over another bridge escorted by plainclothes police. The demostration wrapped up peacefully in a piazza.

Tourists arriving at the main station encountered almost as many journalists as stewards on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.

Arianna Cecilia, a tourist from Rome visiting Venice for the first time, said she thought it was “strange” to have to pay to enter a city in her native country, and be funneled through separate entrance ways for tourists. She and her boyfriend were staying in nearby Treviso, and so downloaded the QR code as required, but she was still caught off-guard while soaking in her first view ever of Venice's canals by the sight of the entrance signs and her boyfriend telling her to get out the ticket.

On the other side of the entrance ways, workers in yellow vests carried out random checks at the train station. Transgressors faces fines of 50 to 300 euros ($53 to $320), but officials said “common sense” was being applied for the launch.

The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free and unchecked.

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of overtourism, and officials hope that the pilot project can help provide more exact figures to better manage the phenomenon.

The city can track the number of hotel visitors, which last year numbered 4.6 million and is down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the number of day visitors, which make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.

A Smart Control Room set up during the pandemic has been tracking arrivals from cellphone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a year, said Michele Zuin, the city’s top economic official. That includes both day-trippers and overnight guests.

But Zuin said the data is incomplete.

“It’s clear we will get more reliable data from the contribution” being paid by day-trippers, he said.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. On peak days, local police set up one-way traffic for pedestrians to keep the crowds moving.

Residents opposing the day-tripper tax insist that the solution to Venice's woes are to boost the resident population and the services they need, limiting short-term rentals to make available more housing and attract families back from the mainland.

Last year, Venice passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park. You don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venice officials expected paid day-tripper arrivals Thursday to reach about 10,000. More than 70,000 others had downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. Hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, should provide a QR code attesting to their stay, which includes a hotel tax.

Venturini, the tourist official, said that interest in Venice’s pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities, and municipalities abroad such as Barcelona, Spain, and Amsterdam.

But Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, doesn't see the fee as the cure-all. Neighboring apartments in her residential building near the famed Rialto Bridge once inhabited by families are now short-term apartment rentals.

The corner butcher shop closed. Yet she noted that the new entrance fee requirement will still allow young people to flood the city in the evening for the traditional aperitivo, which can grow rowdy.

She was passing out mock European Union passports for “Venice, Open City,” underlining the irony of the new system, and challenging its legal standing with citations from the Italian Constitution guaranteeing its citizens the right to “move or reside freely in any part of the national territory."

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It is not Pompeii. It is a city, where we need to fight so the houses are inhabited by families, and stores reopen. That is what would counter this wild tourism,’’ Rodino said.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Tourists could soon be taxed at these popular UK beaches

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A popular coastal region is considering taxing tourists in a move to protect local beaches from the impact of visitors.

Those looking to take a peaceful day trip to Kent seaside resorts – including Margate, Broadstairs and Minnis Bay – could face a new tourism tax from Thanet District Council.

Ideas being looked at include charging additional council tax on second homes and levying a modest tourism tax on overnight stays.

In a meeting last week, the committee recommended levying a tax on overnight stays in the county – as well as upping the council tax on holiday lets.

Cities like Venice and Lisbon have already implemented a tax on tourists to put towards the additional costs of visitors coming to the popular cities.

A report from the meeting said the council needs to ‘actively investigate opportunities to maximise income to the Council from the visitor economy to help balance its costs to the Council.’

The report said: ‘We want a booming visitor economy but we are acutely aware of the additional costs visitors bring, so we need to make every effort to secure income for the Council to set against those costs.’

Another suggested measure was providing ‘paid-for facilities like beach huts with facilities for overnight stays’.

Thanet is a popular destination for many – they recorded 330,200 overnight stays in the county last year according to Visit Kent – and 680 businesses rely on tourist income to stay afloat, according to Kent County Council.

Conservative leader Cllr Reece Pugh said: ‘I think it’s really encouraging. It is a step in the direction. Anything that ensures that people can come to Thanet is great.

‘Businesses that rely on tourism have to be seriously consulted. There’s are a lot of jobs around here that need it so we’ve got to make sure any gains we get from a tax don’t wipe out the benefits we get from tourism in the first place.’

Conservative councillor John Davis also welcomed the idea to increase levies on second homes and Airbnbs.

Cllr Davis told KentOnline: ‘It’s an important initiative. I would like to welcome costs on Airbnbs and the like, because in Ramsgate we have 866 homes for short term let and 21 flats. This is absolutely obscene.

‘It’s why we have people being sent a hundred miles away for temporary accommodation and why we can’t cope with the number of people on the housing list. It’s a really serious issue.’

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Tourism board recommends $5 million Brevard grant to help fund Brightline station in Cocoa

Brevard County's tourism board unanimously recommended a $5 million grant to help design and build the planned Brightline train station in north Cocoa ― a project that could cost $75 million. The grant proposal will go to the Brevard County Commission as early as May 7 for approval.

Funding for the proposed county grant would come from revenue generated by the county's 5% tourist development tax on hotel and motel rooms, vacation rentals and other short-term rentals.

The advisory Brevard County Tourist Development Council on Wednesday supported the grant, in an 8-0 vote, after hearing a presentation from Cocoa city officials about the project.

So far, the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization 's Governing Board has set aside a total of $15.5 million in federal grant money it is targeted to receive in the 2026-27 and 2027-28 budget years to help cover design and construction work for the proposed station.

In addition, the Cocoa City Council at a workshop in March unanimously voted to commit $5 million in city money for a Brightline station project in Cocoa, which helped trigger Brightline's commitment to have the train stop there.

Support for Cocoa station: Brightline gives green light to Cocoa stop for its Orlando-to-Miami passenger rail service

Cocoa City Manager Stockton Whitten said Brightline and Cocoa plan to leverage the $5 million commitment from Cocoa and the proposed $5 million commitment from Brevard County as matching funds, as they plan to apply next month for a federal grant of up to $50 million.

Whitten said, if the funding is lined up, construction could begin as early as the end of this year, and could take two years to complete.

The Cocoa station would be 7,500 to 9,000 square feet, and would be built on a part of a 90-acre-plus site, some of which is owned by Brightline and some of which is owned by Cocoa.

Brevard County Commission Chair Jason Steele ― who also chairs the Tourist Development Council ― told other TDC members that it is important to support the $5 million grant for the project.

"Brightline doesn't offer a station to everybody," Steele said, adding that "you're going to be kicking yourself right down the road" if Brightline's commitment to have a stop in Cocoa falls through because funding wasn't secured for the station, and a community in another county made a better financial offer.

Concerns from advisory board member

But TDC Vice Chair Tom Hermansen, a hotel owner, expressed qualms about being asked to support the $5 million allocation within minutes of getting Cocoa's presentation about the project. He also noted that the request came ahead of the typical annual cycle for seeking tourism capital grants. Hermansen also contended that Brightline has made no direct commitment to help pay for the station's construction.

Steele said the short notice was necessitated by the tight deadline to apply for the federal grant and the need to get County Commission approval before the application is submitted.

Cocoa officials said Brightline previously has invested more than $12 million for land within Cocoa, including in an area near the so-called "Cocoa curve" where the station is proposed.

The Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization previously identified that location near Clearlake Road/U.S. 1 and State Road 528 as the best site for a Brightline station. The site makes sense for Brightline. In addition to owning the land, the area is where Brightline trains must slow down, as they switch from a west-to-east configuration to a north-to-south configuration.

In the end, Hermansen joined the seven other TDC members in voting to support the grant, saying that having a Brightline stop in Cocoa would provide "a meaningful and tremendous economic impact, not just on Cocoa, but on Brevard County as a whole, over the long term."

Brightline currently operates 32 trains a day — 16 in each direction — from early morning to late evening on the roughly 3½-hour route between Orlando International Airport and Miami. But it has no stop in Brevard County.

Samantha Senger, Cocoa's director of communication and economic development, said the Cocoa station would have at least 20 full-time employees. She said having a Brightline stop in Cocoa would generate anywhere from 78,000 to 160,000 nights of accommodations rentals a year at local hotels or vacation rentals.

Assuming an average room rate of $200 a night, that would create $15.6 million to $32 million a year in revenue for the hotels and vacation rentals, plus $780,000 to $1.6 million a year in tourist tax revenue for the county.

Senger said it would be "a transformative project for the Space Coast."

Two options to get county grant

There are two ways for the $5 million Brevard tourism allocation for the Brightline station to be approved.

One would be as a capital facilities grant, which would require a "supermajority vote" of at least four of the five county commissioners.

The other would be by moving money from the Space Coast Office of Tourism capital facilities budget to the office's marketing budget, then approving the $5 million allocation as a tourism-marketing-related project. That approach would require support of a simple majority of three county commissioners.

Steele said he hoped to get unanimous support from the other county commissioners. But he recognized there may be obstacles to get the grant approved by what he described as "a very, very conservative County Commission."

Brightline's current operations

Brightline currently has stops at Orlando International Airport, and in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura and Miami. Brightline carried 1.62 million passengers in 2023, and its goal is to have 4 million passengers in 2024.

Brightline announced in March that it also will have a stop in downtown Stuart, after selecting a proposal for a $60 million rail station project there. The station could open as soon as late-2026.

Brightline has plans to extend its route west from Orlando to Tampa in the future, and also could extend service north from Cocoa to Jacksonville.

Earlier this week, the affiliated entity Brightline West broke ground on the nation's first true high-speed rail system, which will connect Las Vegas to Southern California.

Dave Berman is business editor at  FLORIDA TODAY.  Contact Berman at  [email protected] , on X at  @bydaveberman  and on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54