In 2015, the City of Florence earned 26.5 million euro through the tourist tax, an additional 4 million euro from the previous year.
ph. @marcobadiani
The gain reflects a combination of factors: the city’s crackdown on evasion, increases in prices for the services taxed and a steady increase in tourism. In particular, the number of Airbnb owners declaring and paying the tourist tax has jumped from 60,000 to almost 200,000.
Palazzo Vecchio recently announced its plans for spending the funds, which by law must support improvements to the city’s infrastructure and services for tourists.
Among the planned allocations are 3 million euro for public transport (which has recently been privatized), permitting ATAF to freeze its current bus ticket price at 1.50 euro through 2017. A large sum will support maintenance of public green spaces, in particular replacing trees that fell in the Cascine park after last August’s hurricane. As usual, allocations will be made for cultural initiatives such as those designated in previous years for, among others, the Maggio Musicale, Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Strozzi and Istituto Vieusseux.
