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How cities can fix tourism hell

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Re: How cities can fix tourism hell

#2
I work in urban planning and have to say theres a lot of empty puff that comes under 'smart cities'. Sensors and IoT can help with some things but are more about efficiency or informing of issues rather than solving the issues themselves. The title here is quite ridiculous for the articles content

Re: How cities can fix tourism hell

#3
At risk of being labeled a "neoliberal idealist," why isn't the answer here simply taxing tourists more?

Pigovian taxes have been a thing for fifty years, yet they are still seldom used. It seems like such an obvious solution to me that the fact it's not used more often (ex: towns banning airbnb vs taxing it) suggests to me that I'm missing something obvious.

Re: How cities can fix tourism hell

#5

I work in urban planning and have to say theres a lot of empty puff that comes under 'smart cities'. Sensors and IoT can help with some things but are more about efficiency or informing of issues rather than solving the issues themselves. The title here is quite ridiculous for the articles content

>more about efficiency or informing of issues rather than solving the issues themselves

Isn’t identifying issues a prerequisite for solving them?

Re: How cities can fix tourism hell

#6
post #3

At risk of being labeled a "neoliberal idealist," why isn't the answer here simply taxing tourists more? Pigovian taxes have been a thing for fifty years, yet they are still seldom used. It seems like such an obvious solution to me that the fact it's not used more often (ex: towns banning airbnb vs taxing it) suggests to me that I'm missing something obvious.

Maybe you push out the profitable tourist and leave the sort of stinky dreadlocked backpacker who changes his baby's diaper on the airport gate kiosk and makes their destination a worse place than when they arrived.

Re: How cities can fix tourism hell

#8
post #3

At risk of being labeled a "neoliberal idealist," why isn't the answer here simply taxing tourists more? Pigovian taxes have been a thing for fifty years, yet they are still seldom used. It seems like such an obvious solution to me that the fact it's not used more often (ex: towns banning airbnb vs taxing it) suggests to me that I'm missing something obvious.

Yeah, this is roughly where my thoughts lie. When my partner and I were travelling around Europe, many of the popular cities charged a bed tax — usually only a euro or two a night, so not enough to put us off in anyway, but in aggregate allowing the cities to invest in facilities that could support the tourist influx.

Back home, there’s been debate about doing this too. I hope the pro-tax side wins. Our country is suffering under the annual tourist load, and we need more money in the pot to support it — at the basic end of the spectrum, there are lots of popular places that desperately need toilets and rubbish facilities for the tourists (and the locals) to use. Private industry cannot fill that gap (or, so far, has not) — and while the public are profiting from the visitors, more of that profit needs to be diverted to public coffers to enable the government to fix the problem. A bed tax is a great tool for helping that to happen.

Re: How cities can fix tourism hell

#9
post #3

At risk of being labeled a "neoliberal idealist," why isn't the answer here simply taxing tourists more? Pigovian taxes have been a thing for fifty years, yet they are still seldom used. It seems like such an obvious solution to me that the fact it's not used more often (ex: towns banning airbnb vs taxing it) suggests to me that I'm missing something obvious.

How would you differentiate a local vs. a tourist?

Edit: is that even legal?

Re: How cities can fix tourism hell

#10

I work in urban planning and have to say theres a lot of empty puff that comes under 'smart cities'. Sensors and IoT can help with some things but are more about efficiency or informing of issues rather than solving the issues themselves. The title here is quite ridiculous for the articles content

>more about efficiency or informing of issues rather than solving the issues themselves Isn’t identifying issues a prerequisite for solving them?

How many urban issues are poorly identified?

Does increased surveillance do anything to improve the score?

At what direct and/or indirect costs?

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