Tourism Hakone considers lodging tax for tourists

[thomas]

The spa town of Hakone in Kanagawa is contemplating implementing the prefecture's first lodging tax and an increase in the bathing tax due to the financial burdens of tourism-related expenses. Municipal authorities are exploring ways to generate additional income from tourism to accommodate the yearly influx of approximately 20 million tourists. Although there was a temporary drop in tourist numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the figures have been recovering, alongside escalating expenses.

The municipal government has stated that the expenses for maintaining tourist sites and managing services that cater to visitors, including waste and sewage management and emergency medical care, are substantial. For a small town like Hakone, these costs are pretty high. In the fiscal year 2019, before the pandemic, the city incurred costs of 2.36 billion JPY (USD 15.2 million) despite the income generated from the bathing tax.

One idea is to raise the bathing tax. The town has imposed a tax of 150 JPY (about USD1) for an overnight stay and 50 JPY for a day trip on visitors taking hot spring baths. Hakone has maintained the No. 1 position in Japan in terms of both bathing tax revenue and the number of people taking hot spring dips since fiscal 1987, with revenues of some 620 million JPY (approx. USD4 million) in fiscal 2019. Raising the bathing tax would increase revenue, but there is a disadvantage that the use of the tax money is limited to purposes such as tourism promotion and the maintenance of firefighting facilities because it falls under the "special purpose tax" category. Another idea discussed is the establishment of a lodging tax. Nine local bodies across Japan, including Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture, have introduced such a tax, and the city of Kyoto has set a range of 200 JPY (about USD1.30) to 1,000 JPY (roughly USD6.40) depending on the accommodation fee. With the consent of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, the use of the tax money can be freely decided by ordinance. On the other hand, the dilemma is that the fees cannot be collected from day-trippers, who account for more than 70% of tourists in Hakone.

Japan hot-spring resort town Hakone ponders lodging tax as tourism costs strain finances - The Mainichi

YOKOHAMA -- The popular hot spring resort town of Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, is considering introducing the prefecture's first lodging tax and hikin

mainichi.jp