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Centre Party calls for Sweden to bring in a tourist tax

Centre Party business spokesperson Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist has called for municipalities in Sweden to be allowed to impose an additional tourist tax to compensate for the burden of tourism on infrastructure and municipal finances. Advertisement Thand Ringqvist, who in 2023 was one of the contenders to lead the party, said that following Norway's example and allowing municipalities to charge visitors a fee would increase local acceptance for tourism. "About 60 percent of each tourist krona goes to the state. We have one of the world's most centralised tax systems," she said in a debate on Swedish public broadcaster SVT with financial markets minister Niklas Wykman. "So that's why it's important to find different ways to make sure municipalities get something back back. A municipal fee that municipalities can decide themsleves together with local businesses can do that." Norway's parliament in June agreed to allow muncipalities to levy a 3 percent tax on hotel, Airbnb and hostel stays, and also to levy a tax on visiting cruise ships, after areas like the Lofoten islands and most popular fjords have been overrun by excessive numbers of tourists. In the debate, Wykman likened a tourist tax to a tax on alcohol or tobacco, saying the only reason to bring in such a tax would be if you wanted to reduce the number of tourists, which no municipality in Sweden would really want to do. But Thand Ringqvist countered that this reflected the Stockholm-based perspective of the finance ministry. Advertisement "I see this from [visiting] the gravel roads in the Jämtland mountains and from Öland and I hear what local people are saying," Thand Ringqvist. "The minister sees it from the finance ministry, and there it's hard to see the piles or rubbish, or the parking chaos, or the traffic jams people experience locally." "A municipality would never want to scare away tourists, this is about winning the support of local people and reducing the opposition to tourism in some places."