Norway is debating a tax on cruise tourism as the next step in its plans to introduce a tax on tourism, according to the ministry of trade and industry.
Iceland has been cited as an example, imposing a tax of 1,000 Icelandic kroner per night per cruise passenger (about $7.10), according to N24, a Norwegian online business news service.
The tourism tax is intended to generate funds to build and maintain destination, sightseeing and parking facilities for tourists staying in hotels, Airbnb, at campgrounds and yacht marinas.
Each municipality will be allowed to determine its own tax rate up to a maximum of 5 percent of the overnight rates paid by visitors.
While several municipalities in Norway support the tourism tax proposal as a way to manage what they describe as over tourism, the hotel industry has fired back it is not their guests that create overcrowding but rather the day visitors who arrive by bus, cars and cruise ships.
The Norwegian Coastal Administration has reported that cruise calls more than tripled from 2010 to 2023, the most recent year reported, which saw 3,445 calls.