Externalities and tourist tax. Evidence from Italy

Azzurra Rinaldi

Externalities and tourist tax. Evidence from Italy

Azzurra Rinaldi

Abstract

During the last 60 years, international tourist arrivals increased despite the 2001 and 2008 economic shocks. Tourism has become a mass-consumption practice. And it also happened thanks to price reductions, due to low cost flights and last minutes, that overcame seasonality and created a sort of routine in tourism consumption. While the economic benefits generated by tourism are quite clear, since they are related to increasing production and an higher employment rate, a deeper focus is needed on its negative impacts such as congestion and environmental degradation. Indeed, tourism is a good with external costs, because it is associated with negative externalities due to both the supply and the demand. In order to internalize external costs so that they can be reflected in the market price, governments increasingly levy specific tourism taxes.

Keywords

externalities, fiscal policy, market failures, tourism, tourist taxation, esternalità, fallimenti di mercato, politica fiscale, tasse turistiche, turismo

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Rivista di Scienze del Turismo. Ambiente Cultura Diritto Economia
Registered by Tribunale di Milano (15/09/2008 n. 530)
Online ISSN 2037-7908 - Print ISSN 2037-7916

Executive Editor: Nicola Boccella - Associate Editor: Azzurra Rinaldi
Editorial Staff: Andrea Billi - Patrizia Laurano - Antonio Magliulo - Angelo Quarto
Editorial Board: Alberto Abruzzese (Iulm Milano), Victor Aquino (Universidade de São Paulo), Sergio Arzeni (Ocse), Piero Barucci (Università degli Studi di Firenze), Nicola Boccella (Sapienza Università di Roma), Michael Crang (Durham University), Anya Diekmann (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Renato Guarini (Sapienza Università di Roma), Roberto Grossi (Federculture), Han Yong Liang (Zhejiang University), Jorge Lozano (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Michel Maffesoli (Université Paris-Sorbonne), Vanda Perretta (Sapienza Università di Roma), Marina Righetti (Sapienza Università di Roma), Azzurra Rinaldi (Unitelma - Sapienza Università di Roma), Irene Salerno (Sapienza Università di Roma), Pasquale Sandulli (Sapienza Università di Roma), Manuel Valenzuela (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)