Under the West Flemish capital’s plans, the city of Bruges will implement a €4 tax on short-term visitors starting from 1 January 2027, the city’s mayor said on Thursday.
8 million tourists visited the scenic Flemish city in 2024, which placed significant strain on the city and its inhabitants, according to Bruges Mayor Dirk de Fauw (CD&V). Currently the city only imposes a tax of €4 per person per night on tourists staying in the city. This is collected directly by hotels and other short-term rentals.
While the mayor indicated that nothing had been finalised yet, under the new plans, those visiting the city without an overnight stay could now also pay a supplement.
"We believe that those who visit the city for a short time in a group should also pay a contribution to the maintenance of this beautiful city," the mayor told The Brussels Times. "Cruise tourists should pay a city tax of €4 from 1 January 2027."
The current mayor’s political programme for 2025-2030 states that the city intends to impose a tax first on visitors on coach excursions or cruise ship visits. De Fauw says that collecting this tax from tourists visiting on coaches would be "difficult" and merits further exploration.
The City of Bruges, in a comment to The Brussels Times, said that the city planned to extend the tax in the future to "everyone who comes by 'organised' transport" and that the tax was necessary due to the high strain placed on the city's services. It rejected the notion that Bruges was experiencing "overtourism", but stated it wished to "prevent it from getting to that point."
Bruges mayor de Fauw stated that tourist groups, such as those from cruise ships or bus tours, had a "disruptive" impact on the residents of the small historic city. Nevertheless, he ruled out implementing a flat tax on all daytrippers. "Control would not be possible," he stated.
The mayor says that the city will investigate how to collect this tax alongside cruise companies and tourist agencies.
Bruges city centre. Credit: Dylan Carter/ The Brussels Times
Bruges is just one of many European tourist destinations to unveil tourist taxes aimed at covering the cost of tourist inflows or controlling levels of tourism.
In April 2024, Venice launched a tourist tax of €5 for all non-residents visiting the floating city. Visitors to the city are required to present a QR code proving that they have paid the fee. In Barcelona, one of the cities most affected by “over-tourism”, charges €4 per person for tourists staying in the city.
Outside Europe, some countries take an even more extreme approach to promoting sustainable tourism numbers. The mountainous nation of Bhutan charges a $100 daily flat fee for most foreign visitors in a bid to promote “high-value, low-volume tourism.” Despite the high fees, the small remote nation still welcomed over 100,000 tourists last year.
