Travelers planning trips across Europe and Asia in 2026 will encounter a thicket of new fees and regulations as destinations from Iceland to Italy move to rein in overtourism, just as Japan prepares to sharply increase its own tourist taxes.
The latest proposals and confirmed policy changes point to a global recalibration of how countries and cities manage visitor numbers, fund infrastructure, and protect local quality of life, with higher costs and stricter rules increasingly becoming part of the fine print on international itineraries.
Japan Raises the Price of Entry and Exit
Japan is poised to become one of the clearest examples of a major tourism power using taxes and travel charges to reshape visitor flows. After a record tourism rebound following the pandemic, the government has decided to triple the national “departure tax” from 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen per traveler, with implementation expected in the 2026 fiscal year.
The levy is applied to all passengers leaving Japan by air or sea and is usually baked into airline tickets, meaning most travelers will see higher total fares rather than a separate fee at the airport.
Officials in Tokyo have framed the increase as part of a broader strategy to tackle overcrowding in hotspots such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido and Fukuoka, which collectively account for the great majority of overnight stays. Revenue from the higher charge is earmarked to support tourism infrastructure, crowd management and measures to mitigate inappropriate behavior at popular sites, with government forecasts suggesting tax income could more than double once the new rate is fully in place.
On top of the departure levy, Japan is developing the Japan Electronic System for Travel Authorisation, or JESTA, for citizens of currently visa-free countries. Expected around 2028, it would function as a pre-screening and registration system similar to Europe’s ETIAS, with a proposed fee in the low thousands of yen per traveler. Taken together, the higher departure tax, JESTA fee and rising visa costs for some markets signal a new era in which Japan is no longer a relative bargain on the administrative side of international travel.
Kyoto’s Steep Hotel Tax Hike Sets a New Benchmark
Kyoto, Japan’s former imperial capital and one of the country’s most visited cities, is preparing an especially sharp increase in its accommodation tax that will hit in March 2026. Under the plan approved by local leaders, a tiered nightly levy that currently tops out at 1,000 yen for the most expensive rooms could rise as high as 10,000 yen per night for luxury stays. Budget and midrange travelers would see smaller absolute increases but still face higher per-night charges than in past years.
Existing rules require guests to pay between 200 and 1,000 yen per night depending on room price. Under the new structure, low-cost rooms would attract a 200 to 400 yen tax, mid-tier properties around 1,000 yen, and the most exclusive suites ten times the current maximum, pushing the nightly add-on to roughly 65 US dollars at current exchange rates. City officials say the revenue will be channeled into preserving Kyoto’s cultural heritage, strengthening public transport and mitigating pressure on historic districts where geisha harassment and crowding have made global headlines.
The Kyoto increase is being closely watched by other destinations wrestling with overtourism. Critics warn that high hotel taxes risk encouraging same-day visits instead of overnights, potentially intensifying crowding in temples and shopping streets while shifting spending to cities where tourists actually sleep. Supporters argue that a higher price tag is a necessary corrective after years in which the city’s carrying capacity was regularly exceeded in peak seasons.
Iceland Tightens Its Own Tourist Tax Framework
Iceland, which has seen its image burnished by social media and its popularity surge among higher-income travelers, is moving in the same direction as Japan, but starting from a different baseline. Authorities in Reykjavik reinstated and modernized a nationwide accommodation tax on January 1, 2024, and are now preparing proposals to raise that levy further after yet another year of record visitor numbers.
Current rules apply a per-night charge of 600 Icelandic krona on hotel and guesthouse rooms, with a lower rate for campsites and mobile homes. Government officials have cast the tax as an environmental measure designed to fund nature protection and infrastructure in a small, fragile island nation where tourist volumes vastly outnumber residents. With landmarks such as the Blue Lagoon and the Golden Circle under persistent pressure, the government has signaled that simply absorbing millions more visitors without additional resources is no longer an option.
Debate in Iceland now centers on how aggressive the next increase should be, and how to balance revenue collection with the country’s image as a remote, aspirational destination. Tourism leaders emphasize that even a higher per-night tax is likely to remain a relatively small component of overall trip costs, which already include premium airfares and high local prices. Yet the message is clear: visitors will be expected to contribute more directly to the upkeep of the landscapes and communities they come to experience.
Switzerland, France, Italy and Sweden Expand the Cost of a Stay
Across continental Europe, tourist levies have moved from niche experiment to widespread norm, with Switzerland, France, Italy, Sweden and others adjusting their systems for 2025 and 2026. In Switzerland, resort towns and alpine destinations continue to refine nightly taxes that fund public transport and trail maintenance. Officials in Zermatt and other mountain enclaves, often cited in overtourism debates, have studied models such as Venice’s entry fee as they evaluate new tools to limit peak-time crowding.
In France, major cities including Paris have increased the combined weight of regional and local taxes on overnight stays. Visitors now face a layered system in which per-night fees depend on both lodging category and geography, with the highest-end properties in and around the capital paying some of the steepest tourism taxes in Europe. Local leaders have defended the rises as necessary to finance public transport, sanitation and security in areas that host enormous influxes of short-term guests throughout the year.
Italy, already known for its patchwork of municipal levies, is considering allowing top-end hotels in certain destinations to raise nightly tourist taxes to as much as 25 euros, significantly above current ceilings. The proposal, still under discussion, would sit alongside existing city-level surcharges in Rome, Milan and Florence, where guests typically pay between 1 and 7 euros per night depending on classification. Swedish cities, which came later to tourism taxes, are also exploring or expanding nightly charges to shore up local budgets and manage rising visitor numbers in hotspots like Stockholm’s historic core and parts of the archipelago.
Portugal, Malta and Other EU States Embrace Fines and Nightly Levier
Portugal has emerged as one of Europe’s most assertive regulators of tourist behavior, coupling accommodation taxes with a dense web of conduct rules and on-the-spot fines. Coastal municipalities in the Algarve now charge up to 2 euros per person per night in high season, while cities including Lisbon and Porto levy their own surcharges on hotel bills. At the same time, authorities have introduced steep penalties for public nudity, improper dress away from beaches, amplified music and other forms of disruptive behavior, with fines in some cases running into the tens of thousands of euros for serious breaches.
Malta, which brands itself as a year-round Mediterranean hotspot, has long operated an environmental contribution on overnight stays and has gradually raised that fee while tightening enforcement against unlicensed rentals. Policymakers there stress the need to offset the impact of dense tourist development on water, waste and transport systems on a small archipelago with limited natural resources. The island state has also joined wider European efforts to regulate short-term rentals, aiming to cool housing pressures in urban centers popular with digital nomads and long-stay visitors.
Elsewhere in the European Union, local and regional governments have built on existing taxes or introduced new ones. Spanish regions such as Catalonia have layered municipal surcharges on top of longstanding regional levies, while some coastal towns in Portugal’s Algarve have only recently joined the tax trend, capping nightly charges and dedicating proceeds to cleanliness and sustainability projects. For travelers, the result is a patchwork in which nearly every night spent in formal accommodation now carries a destination-specific supplement.
Venice and Other Italian Hotspots Tighten Day-Tripper Rules
Venice continues to serve as a high-profile laboratory for tourism management policies that other cities can observe and adapt. After testing a 5 euro entry fee for day visitors entering the lagoon city on selected peak days, officials expanded and toughened the regime. For 2025, the number of charged days has been increased and a higher 10 euro fee is applied to last-minute registrations made only a few days before arrival. Tourists must pre-register and carry a QR code as proof of payment, with fines for noncompliance reaching into the hundreds of euros.
The program has generated millions in revenue and some modest reductions in congestion on the busiest dates, but critics argue it does not tackle the underlying issue of the city’s swollen tourist bed capacity and dwindling permanent population. Local campaigners have called for even stronger measures, including much steeper entry charges for cruise passengers and day-trippers who spend relatively little while contributing to crowding in narrow streets and on fragile bridges.
Beyond Venice, Italian authorities have experimented with more targeted behavioral rules. Portofino on the Ligurian coast has introduced no-waiting zones near its harbor to stop visitors from lingering for long selfie sessions that block pedestrian flow. Other towns have banned loudspeakers on group tours, restricted group sizes and stepped up enforcement of rules against swimming in canals or climbing on monuments. These measures underscore a shift away from simply taxing bed-nights and toward regulating how tourists actually use urban space.
New Entry Rules and Conduct Codes Reshape European City Breaks
The convergence of taxes and behavioral rules is particularly visible in Europe’s most popular urban destinations. Amsterdam, for example, has raised its tourist tax on hotel stays to one of the highest rates in Europe by tying it directly to room costs as a percentage, while simultaneously curbing alcohol promotions, guided tours in sensitive neighborhoods and short-term holiday rentals in the historic center. City leaders reiterate that they are not seeking more visitors, but rather better-distributed and more responsible tourism.
Across the continent, cities such as Dubrovnik, Barcelona and Hvar have combined nightly taxes with noise limits, decibel caps for nightclubs, and steep penalties for disruptive street behavior or public drinking. Many municipal authorities argue that without such measures, long-term residents are driven out and the urban fabric risks becoming a hollowed-out backdrop for short-stay visitors. Some measures have drawn legal challenges and pushback from hospitality operators, but public support has generally hardened in communities that feel overwhelmed each summer.
These city-level efforts increasingly intersect with national or supranational systems such as ETIAS, the European Union’s forthcoming travel authorization scheme for visitors from many visa-exempt countries. While ETIAS itself is not a tourism tax, the accumulation of small fees, registration requirements and compliance obligations has become a central feature of planning a city break in Europe, especially for travelers who may be crossing several borders in a single trip.
What the New Landscape Means for Travelers
For international travelers, the net effect of these overlapping changes is a moderate but noticeable rise in the non-negotiable costs of visiting some of the world’s most popular destinations. A trip that includes a long-haul flight to Japan, a week in Kyoto, a stopover in Iceland, and a multi-city tour through Switzerland, France, Italy, Portugal and Malta could now involve multiple layers of taxes and fees, applied at departure, on arrival, at hotel check-in and even at the gates of specific attractions.
Travel experts note that while the individual amounts are often small relative to overall trip budgets, they can add up, particularly for families and long stays. Advance planning, including careful reading of booking confirmations and destination rules, is becoming essential to avoid surprises at checkout or entry points. Early reservations may also help keep some costs down in places like Venice, where last-minute day-trip bookings carry higher surcharges.
At the policy level, the flurry of new and proposed measures from Japan to Iceland and across Europe reflects a broader shift in how governments view mass tourism. Rather than chasing ever-higher arrival numbers, destinations are increasingly focusing on yield per visitor, environmental impact and social balance. The new taxes and regulations may complicate travel logistics, but they are rapidly becoming the price of admission to some of the world’s most sought-after places at a time when the tourism boom shows few signs of slowing.