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- Guests are expensive: how hotel rooms will become more expensive due to the new tourist tax
Guests are expensive: how hotel rooms will become more expensive due to the new tourist tax
A tourist tax will be introduced in Russia from January 2025. It will have to be paid by organizations and individuals rendering services involving the provision of places for the temporary accommodation of citizens in hotels and hostels registered in the State register. Tourist tax will be immediately included in the receipt. If the guest refuses to pay the tax, the accommodation may be denied, warns the association "Tourpomoch". In 2025, the marginal tax rate will be 1% of the cost of accommodation, but not less than 100 rubles per day, and by 2029 will increase to 5%. The new fee will affect the cost of recreation and may reduce the profitability of some hotels, according to participants in the hospitality industry. Details - in the material "Izvestia".
Tourist tax from January 1, 2025 in Russia: what it is, who pays
Currently, in some subjects of the Russian Federation is an experiment in the development of tourist infrastructure, within the framework of which the vacationers are charged a resort tax. Established from January 1, 2025 tourist tax has a number of differences from it, told "Izvestia" in the press service of the Ministry of Finance of Russia.
First of all, the tourist tax will be paid by organizations and individuals providing temporary accommodation services, not by their guests.
Tourist tax is paid as a percentage of the cost of temporary accommodation services, but not less than 100 rubles per day. The tourist tax will be introduced on their territory by federal cities, and outside their borders - by municipal authorities. They will independently determine the tax rate within the delta stipulated by the law.
The law also stipulates the upper limit of the rate, which local authorities will not be able to exceed. Thus, in 2025 the rate cannot be higher than 1% of the cost of accommodation, in 2026 - 2%, in 2027 - 3%, in 2028 - 4%, from 2029 - 5%.
Funds from the tourist tax will go to the budget of the municipality.
- The Tax Code (paragraph 2 of Art. 418.4) defines the categories of persons whose cost of services is not included in the tax base, - the Ministry of Finance notes. - Municipalities may establish additional categories of such persons, as well as tax benefits for certain categories of taxpayers.
In the press service of ATOR explains that in many municipalities receipts from the new tax will be insignificant, but this fee will affect the cost of recreation and reduce the profitability of some hotels.
- Tax payers will not be tourists, but organizations and individuals providing such tourist services. In fact, the tourist tax will be "sewn" into the cost of the room: to pay it separately, as it happens now at the resort fee with the appropriate receipt, tourists will not be - noted in ATOR.
The organization notes that with the allocation of clients-eligible from the general flow may arise technical difficulties in ordering tours, booking rooms, pricing and payment.
At the same time, the tourist tax does not apply to preferential categories of citizens, points out the spokeswoman for the association "Turpomoshch" Maria Zyukova. In addition, the law allows the authorities of municipalities to expand this list and allow other categories of citizens not to pay tourist tax.
- Vacationers will be able to avoid unnecessary spending if they provide documents entitling them to the benefit. For example, the tour tax will not apply to residents of Kamchatka - only to visiting guests and tourists," says Zyukova.
Partner, Head of Hospitality and Tourism Department at Commonwealth Partnership Marina Smirnova adds that the tax will not be paid by those collective accommodation facilities (CAF), for which classification is not mandatory: departmental hotels, children's camps and hotels of religious organizations. In addition, all owners of apartments will not pay tax, as they are not legalized.
- The case of sanatoriums is interesting: they are not obliged to undergo classification, respectively, the data on them are not entered in the register. But it was decided to include them in the register regardless of whether they have been classified or not, - explained Marina Smirnova.
How the new tax will affect tourists
Tourist tax is a typical phenomenon for popular cities and resorts, said Oleg Kozyrev, marketing director of Travelata.ru online tour store. According to him, usually such a tax is € 1-2 per day in Europe, which does not embarrass travelers at all. This is a modest amount, considering that a night in a hotel costs €70-90.
- In Russia, such a fee will not have a significant impact on tourists either, but it will help improve the infrastructure, which is often lacking," believes Oleg Kozyrev.
According to his data, in 2024 the average check for domestic travel amounted to Br78 thousand, including flight, accommodation and insurance. Obviously, the additional Br700-900 will not be too significant in the total spending on vacation, Kozyrev believes.
- The decision - whether to introduce the tax or not - is on the side of the regions, - emphasize the press service of the National tour operator Alean. - Unlike the resort fee, the amount of which was fixed, the amount of tourist tax is determined by local authorities.
Another difference is in the format of tax collection. The resort tax was not included in the cost of accommodation, which often led to conflicts, as tourists may not be aware of its existence in the region. And the tourist tax will be included in the room rate.
However, hotelier, head and co-founder of Hotel Advisors Sergey Danilchenko believes that the introduction of tourist tax may have a negative impact on hotels for several reasons.
The main thing is that the financial performance of hotels may decrease. If the cost of accommodation for guests becomes more expensive, the number of tourists may decrease, especially if there are alternative destinations where the local authorities have refused to collect the tax.
- It can already be said that the already not the most profitable industry is imposed an additional burden, - says Sergei Danilchenko.
The press service of the online hotel booking service "Ostrovok" expects that the cost of rates will increase by the amount of tax - given the low margin of the hotel business, hoteliers will be forced to build this tax into the prices.
At the same time in hotels of budget categories the minimum bar of 100 rubles may actually be more than 1% of the cost of accommodation. For example, at the cost of accommodation of Br2 thousand per night Br100 will actually amount to 5%, emphasize the company.
The Commonwealth Partnership adds that if the resort fee had a purpose - the development of tourism in the region, the tourist tax has no such purpose. In addition, the spending of the fee was controlled by public organizations, while the documents on the tourist tax do not mention regulation. Finally, the COP had 19 categories of beneficiaries, while the tax has only four such categories.
