Taxing Cruise Tourism: Alaska's Head Tax on Cruise Ship Passengers

James Mak
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James Mak: Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2424 Maile Way, Rm 542, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA

Tourism Economics, 2008, vol. 14, issue 3, 599-614

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: head tax; cruise tourism; tourist tax; Alaska (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:toueco:v:14:y:2008:i:3:p:599-614

DOI: 10.5367/000000008785633613

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