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ETOA protests 'retrospective taxation' in Italy
The European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) is writing to the government of Italy to protest against the sudden increase in charges to bring coaches in to popular destinations in Italy. From January of this year, tour operators have been subjected to dramatically increased charges in cities such as Florence, Venice and Pisa.

"What is particularly distressing is that these charges are being introduced with no notice," said Tom Jenkins, Executive Director, ETOA. Visitors book their journey many months in advance. Tour operators have to price them years ahead. You cannot 're-price' a product that has already been sold. Such a sudden surcharge has to be absorbed from the margin.

This looks extremely bad for Italy and for Europe. It punishes enterprises for bringing visitors: it is a fine on inward investment. It suppresses demand for the most environmentally efficient form of transport. It also betrays an attitude where taking money off visitors is considered a victimless crime. In this year, of all years, everyone is striving to cut costs in order to boost demand. But not in regional Italy.

Many of Italy's cities have imposed traffic restrictions and enclosed their historic centres in a ZTL - a zone of traffic limitation. The original aim was to reduce congestion and pollution from vehicle fumes. In some cities such as Venice and Florence the area of limitation is quite wide - much more than a pedestrian-only area of streets, and the ZTL scheme is used to inflate the cost of parking cars and coaches close to the city centres. Tatiana Rokou - Thursday, February 05, 2009