Articles tagged “taxes”

The OTAs have won the majority of these cases around the country, although there are important exceptions. Despite this ruling, there is no sign that this decade-long hotel tax battle is showing any sign of abating.

Carnival Corp. didn't make any concessions in its letter to Senator Rockefeller, arguing that the cruise industry already pays plenty of taxes. Don't expect Carnival to reimburse the U.S. government for its costs in the Triumph incident, although the amount of money would be puny for a corporation of Carnival's size.

Nobody adores taxes, but this one is universally hated in a way that makes others seemed loved. But it's hard to give up a tax that brings in nearly £4 billion a year.

This tax increase won't have much effect on casual vacationers, but does come into play for larger conventions when meeting planners are comparison shopping across cities, hence this worry.

Online travel agencies now owe Hawaii a huge bill to comply with the state's general excise tax, and Hawaii hasn't even won the battle over hotel occupancy taxes yet. Hawaii, which is such a rich vacation market for the OTAs, is giving them a big migraine.

The hotel tax issues dogs the online travel agencies; they win most cases, but get zapped every once in awhile. The Texas case, which dates to 2006, isn't over yet. It will be appealed.

Win one in Florida, lose one in Hawaii ... the hotel tax issue for online travel agencies has dragged on across the country for nine years. The OTAs have won most of the cases, but there have been important setbacks along the way.

Expedia's revenge? After years of sluggish growth in its all-important hotel business, Expedia's room-night growth is kicking into gear. The adverse Hawaii excise tax ruling is a concern, but the online travel agencies have been able to navigate the torrent of litigation so far without getting blown away.

While there's no doubt the end of taxes would produce a small bump in inbound traffic, PricewaterhouseCoopers is out of its gourd if it thinks scrapping the tax would boost tourism by 40%. The biggest benefit to cutting the tax will be outbound tourism.

Kinks in getting the emissions trading scheme up and running may have slanted in airlines’ favor this year, but airlines can only keep that up by continuing to increase fares faster than the taxes.