Taxing cruise tourism: Alaska´s head tax on cruise ship passengers

• James Mak ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Hawaii at Manoa

     University of Hawaii at Manoa

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Tourism economics: the business and finance of tourism and recreation, ISSN 1354-8166, Vol. 14, Nº. 3, 2008, págs. 599-614
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In 2006, Alaskans voted to pass an initiative, Ballot Measure 2, which, among several provisions, levied a head tax on every visiting cruise ship passenger per voyage. Money collected from the head tax was to be appropriated by the legislature to municipalities to defray their cost of providing public services to cruise tourism. This paper develops a simple model which treats the cruise ship passenger tax as a lump-sum tax and analyses how this tourist tax might influence consumer behaviour and the likely effects on the tourist industry, state and local governments and the residents of Alaska. The analytical framework can be adapted easily for use in other destinations where lawmakers contemplate the merits of levying head taxes on tourists.