€0,5 tax will be levied on tourists for every night spent in the city of Lappeenranta, Finland, according to ee24.com citing the portal YLE. This amount will be included in the cost of living in Lappeenranta hotels. Thus, this border town will be the first in Finland to introduce the tourist tax .
Head of the Agency for Business Development and Innovation of Lappeenranta, Markus Lankinen, explained that the specific geographical location of the city gives it a special status. Authorities expect to spend additional funds from the tax on tourists for road construction and infrastructure development.
Replenishment of the budget at the expense of tourists has been practiced since last year in the Italian cities of Milan and Bologna. The tax (which ranges from €1 to €5 per night, depending on the hotel degree) is applied in Genoa, Venice, Rome, Padua, Florence, Bellagio, San Gimignano and the island of Capri. The tourists in the Spanish province of Catalonia (the capital is Barcelona) pay a fee even if they prefer to rent apartments rather than live in hotels.
It is no secret that in the case with Lappeenranta and other cities of southern Finland, the tax burden will fall primarily on tourists from North-West Russia .