After the resort tax was introduced in 2022, the income of the Krasnodar Territory increased 4.5 times, but only one out of every five vacationers paid it. In this respect writer RBC, referring to the press service of the Region’s Ministry of Resorts, Tourism and Olympic Heritage.
In 2022, Kuban’s income from resort fees paid by vacationers in hotels amounted to 747 million rubles. In 2021, 4.5 times less, or 165 million rubles, was collected. At the same time, the tourist tax collected last year was a record for five years of the resort tax experiment. However, the multiple growth in revenues is explained by the growth of the tax rate itself.
The publication noted that the number of tourists paying the facility fee in the Kuban increased by 16 percent last year to approximately 3.6 million people. A total of 17.4 million tourists rested in the region throughout the year.
The publication noted that the discrepancy between the number of vacationers and those who pay the resort fee is due to the existence of preferential categories that are exempt from payment. Additionally, some market experts thought that the inconsistency might also be related to the methodology for calculating statistics. For example, in Sochi, even those who come to the city for a day, stay in apartments or campsites, or own property in a resort town and do not pay tourism tax are considered tourists. It is also likely that some of the market will be in the gray area in order to remain competitive.
In early December, President of the State Council of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov declarationthat republican authorities plan to extend the previously introduced moratorium on the establishment of a resort fee in the region. He noted that the authorities “are not unequivocally against the resort tax”, but that it is now premature to bring it to Crimea.