Taras Fomchenkov
for EcoToutism Expert 
The effectiveness of the resort fee in Russia was very vague. At the time, the Ministry of Finance gave an assessment according to which "there is an obvious rejection of the targeted nature of these payments, which will not allow direct funds received through the introduction of this fee to improve the hospitality infrastructure." So, starting from January 1, 2025, the resort fee in Russia was canceled. Instead, local authorities now have the right to independently introduce a tourist tax on their territory.
This is a new mandatory payment from the proceeds of the hotel business. It is charged for the entire amount of temporary accommodation in a hotel or hotel. Tax rates are set by regulatory legal acts of the representative bodies of municipalities and may vary depending on the seasonality and category of accommodation facility.
Tax rates are officially set, but may vary depending on the season and/or the room category where the guest is staying. At the same time, they do not have the right to go beyond the limits prescribed in the country's Tax Code.: in 2025 — 1%; in 2026 — 2%; in 2027 — 3%; in 2028 — 4%; Starting in 2029, the rate limit is 5%. Thus, the tourist tax is introduced gradually, over a period of five years. In each subsequent year, the rate rises by one point.
An important part of this is the mandatory minimum tax threshold of 100 rubles per room per day. The payers of the tourist tax are organizations and individuals that provide services for the provision of places for temporary residence, but, in fact, tourists will have to pay the new tax. There is no doubt that hotels will simply include the amount of tax in the room rate. And if previously privileged categories of citizens were exempt from paying the tourist/ resort fee, now there will be no such exceptions.
The initiative to collect a resort fee is not a Russian one; in many countries around the world, a similar ‘tourist tax’ has been introduced and has been in effect for a long time. For example, the tourist tax in France is from 0.2 to 4.3 euros in 2023 depending on the location, that is, from 20 to 439 rubles per day. In Portugal, tourists have to pay a tourist tax in 13 out of 308 municipalities. In Lisbon, for example, it is 2 euros (204 rubles) per night, but they pay the tourist tax only for the first seven days of their stay. But in Switzerland, the way for collecting tourist tax is more diverse and depends on the authorities of a particular canton. In the Basel-Stadt canton, visitors pay from 3.5 to 4 Swiss francs (368 - 420 rubles) a day to the city treasury. Children under 12 years of age, as well as those who stay in one place for more than a month, may not pay the tourist tax starting from the 31st day of stay. And in the Fribourg canton, the fee is 3 francs (315 rubles) per day, and children under 16 years old do not pay a tourist tax.
According to Oleg Alekseev, President of the National Association of Event Tourism Specialists, "the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) and statistics sais that in general, the number of travelers, vacationers and tourists has decreased significantly. The reason is simple —people don’t have the money for traveling and it’s premature to introduce any additional taxes, even if they seem rather small,” the expert believes.
“Moreover, the average duration of the Russians’ vacation trips has decreased now. Previously, it was about 12 days, it is just 10 days now, which means that the population has less money for their vacation travels,” the expert sums up.
