France urged to scrap tourism tax rise
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The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has pleaded with French authorities to scrap plans to increase tourism taxes in hotels.
Authorities in France have announced considerations for tourism tax to increase up to 433% but the WTTC warned this, along with a 3% increase in VAT earlier this year, could damage the country’s tourism prospects.
Travel and tourism contributes 9.5% of France’s total GDP and supports 2.8 million jobs.
“WTTC’s research shows that direct increases in taxes on tourists have the effect of deterring travel and reducing overall taxation income,” said David Scowsill, CEO and president of WTTC. “The 3% VAT rise and these additional hotel taxes will only further erode France’s price competitiveness. It is completely the wrong way of going about stimulating demand. We urge the French Government to reconsider and urgently reverse the recent rise in hotel VAT and drop this latest proposal.”
He urged the French government to see tourism as a ‘revenue generator and not revenue source’ and introduce more visa relaxation for markets such as Thailand, Indonesia and India.
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