Hospitality professionals are protesting against the announced sharp increase in the tourist tax on hotel nights in Ile-de-France to finance public transport, which they believe will penalize their competitiveness.
“With a 200% increase in the tourist tax planned for 2024, Paris and the Ile-de-France region have already won the gold medal in taxation! » even before the opening of the Olympic Games, write the Union of Hotel Trades and Industries (Umih) and the National Group of Hotel Chains (GNC), in a press release published Friday. “If this announcement were to materialize in the 2024 finance bill, Paris would become by far the most heavily taxed capital in Europe ahead of Rome, Brussels, Berlin, Athens, Madrid and London,” denounce the two organizations.
Tripling
They refer to a clause in the agreement signed on Tuesday between the presidency of Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), Valérie Pécresse, and the Minister for Transport, Clément Beaune, which provides for “the creation on January 1, 2024 of ‘an additional tax to the tourist tax (…) collected in the Ile-de-France region and allocated to Ile-de-France Mobilités, with a ceiling rate of 200%’, that is to say a possible – and likely – three times.
The tourist tax in Paris currently varies from 0.25 euros for modest campsites to 5 euros for palaces, per night and per person. “Taken without consultation with representatives of the hotel and catering industry, this measure would lastingly penalize the competitiveness of the destination in business and leisure tourism in the leading tourist region in France,” they add.
“Other funding avenues exist”
The president of the French hotel industry Umih Véronique Siegel speaks of a “tax overload which will have a lasting impact on the competitiveness of our companies”. “Other financing avenues exist, for example by using vacant housing and offices,” suggest Umih and the GNC.
“The new increase in the tourist tax has frankly undermined the competitiveness of the Parisian and Ile-de-France hotels by making Paris one of the cities with the highest tourist tax in the world,” adds the Groupement des hotels and restaurants of France (GHR).
“The increase in transport payments further increases labor costs while we already devote more than 40% of turnover to payroll in hotels, cafes and restaurants,” add its presidents at the national level and for the ‘Ile-de-France, Didier Chenet and Pascal Mousset.