Yet it turned out that in 2024 the number of tourist overnight stays had grown by 3 percent 22.9 million. It was a new record and the municipality expects that the number of overnight stays will be even higher this year, between 23 and 24.6 million. The limit set by the municipality itself of a maximum of twenty million tourist overnight stays has been going on for years exceeded.
Triplication needed
When the tourist tax was 7 percent of the total value of the booking – plus 3 euros per night -, Amsterdam was already one of the more expensive cities in Europe. But a study that the municipality had carried out showed that only with a triple of the percentage The deterrent effect of the tax would really work.
With that, tourists should pay American tax rates for an overnight stay in the city. In Los Angeles, New York and Washington, the three cities with the highest tourist tax in the world, tourists pay 38.10 euros, 37.74 euros and 36.77 euros tax per night respectively.
Those amounts are not coming for the time being, because responsible alderman Sofyan Mbarki announced at the beginning of this year that there will be no further increase in the tourist tax. Even though it is a means for the municipality to increase tax revenues. In 2024 the tourist tax was good for 286.4 million euros For the Amsterdam treasury.
According to Mbarki, ‘additional measures’ are still needed to reduce the tourist flow. Next December he wants to come back to that.