Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
VEGA (VG) 1,200 inhabitants – almost 60,000 visitors. The calculation does not add up for the island community, which primarily receives tour tourists.
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Vega municipality, with a population of around 1,200, receives 50,000–60,000 visitors a year. The tourists leave little money, and the municipality is unable to build and maintain infrastructure for all the tourists. Mayor Andre Møller fears that they will have to get funds in the budget from, among other things, schools and care for the elderly. That is why he wants a tourist tax. The government opened the door to introducing a tourist tax in the Hurdal platform in the autumn of 2021, but an arrangement is not yet in place. view more
– Been there, done that. Never again, says Jonhild Bjerkeli as she rounds the corner to one of the motorhomes parked below Vegas’ most famous attraction – the Vega stairs.
Together with Jan Viggo Bjerkeli, Beate Teigstad Iversen and Elisabeth Låstad, she is just down the stairs. Øystein Iversen and Magne Haugen are waiting by the motorhomes, a little less red in the face than the rest of the gang.
THE KING OF THE CAMPING PLACE: The group of friends Jan Viggo Bjerkli, Jonhild Bjerkli, Beate Teigstad Iversen, Øystein Iversen, Elisabeth Låstad and Magne Haugen are enjoying motorhome life at Vega. Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
The group features most of the tourists to the archipelago with World Heritage status for outstanding nature and cultural heritage on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
They arrange their own accommodation, and visit the islands for the nature. They have paid NOK 75 for parking, which goes to a private landowner, and perhaps buy some food at the convenience store. Beyond this, they leave little money on Vega.
Wants tourist tax
– There is a challenge, says mayor Andre Møller.
There is not enough money in the municipal coffers for everyone who travels on the islands in the municipality.
– This with infrastructure, hiking trails, paving on hiking trails, it must be maintained, he says.
MORE THAN DOUBLING: Since 2004, mayor Andre Møller has seen an increase in tourism from 3,000–4,000 tourists to up to 60,000 a year. Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
It is also demanding to dimension waste management and toilet facilities for 50 times the municipality’s population. Now the mayor wants a tourist tax.
– If not, I have to set aside a budget that I might use for school, kindergarten, after-school care or nursing care, he says.
Info
This is tourist tax
Tourist tax, also called visitor contribution, is a proposed scheme which means that tourists to municipalities that receive a lot of visitors must pay a little extra. The government opened the door to introducing a visitor contribution in the Hurdal platform, in the autumn of 2021. A government official recommended that the government introduce a tourist tax in March 2023. It has not been decided how the tourist tax will be collected, or how much it will be. It will apply to both Norwegian and foreign tourists. view more
– Do we have to pay to use the stairs?
– It’s perfectly fine, as long as they don’t rip us off, says Bjerkeli.
She says the Vega stairs were very well made, and that she is happy to pay to use such offers.
Magne Haugen disagrees with this.
– Do we have to pay to use the stairs?
– We have not crossed the border, we are in our own country, he says. Haugen he thinks we pay enough tax already.
It is nevertheless Bjerkeli who receives the most support in the group of friends.
– A hundred would have been fine, says Øystein Iversen.
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Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VGDRONNINGA AV THE CAMPING PLACE: Jan Viggo Bjerkli, Jonhild Bjerkli, Beate Teigstad Iversen, Øystein Iversen, Elisabeth Låstad and Magne Haugen pay little to park the campers – and these pennies do not go to the municipal coffers. Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
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Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
Not everyone can afford it
Out in the fjord below the Vega steps, a figure wades out from the beach. The majestic mountain Søla is reflected in the surface of the water.
– That looked delicius!
– Yes, very delicious, but a bit long strands of seaweed, says the woman in the water, and wades back onto the beach.
The woman turns out to be the particularly fit pensioner Tone Erdal from Bergen.
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Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
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Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
Erdal has just walked the Via Ferrata on the mountain Ravnfloget, and is taking a cooling bath after the excursion. She can eagerly say that she has participated in Ekstremsportveko in Voss, traveled to the Nordkapp, hiked several mountains in Lofoten, and has now moved down to Vega in her Camper habit.
Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
Erdal is unsure what she thinks about tourist tax.
– It depends on what kind of tourists you want. If you want people who are fond of nature, preferably people who have low budgets.
– Those who are there for the nature experiences. It is not certain that they have the money for it.
Erdal is more positive about government support for municipalities with a lot of tourism. At the same time, she believes that foreign tourists put a lot of strain on nature, and should also help pay for infrastructure for tourism.
Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
– Nothing happens
Mayor Andre Møller does not fear that the tourist tax will scare tourists away.
– We must try to put in place a system that strikes fairly, he says.
The municipality has so far tried a Vipps scheme, where tourists can tip a voluntary sum to the municipality.
Tourism manager in Vega municipality, Hilde Wika states that the municipality received 40,000 in the first year, and 25,000 last year. This is still not enough.
She believes the government must step in, and is impatient.
– That the districts should focus on tourism is a deliberate development from the government, says Wika.
– When we report back that we have a challenge, they have to create a system, she says.
REQUIRES SYSTEM: Tourism manager in Vega municipality, Hilde Wika, believes the tourist tax scheme is taking too long. Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
Today, municipalities are not allowed to introduce their own tourist tax.
But as early as autumn 2021, the government expressed a desire to introduce a tourist tax. This was established in the Hurdal platform.
A government-appointed committee again recommended the tourist tax in March this year. So far, however, there have been few signs of the treasure.
– We have been discussing this for 15 years now, says Wika.
– Nothing happens.
She says it is the same for the municipality if the money comes as tourist tax, or as additional support from the state treasury to municipalities with a lot of tourism. The most important thing is that the money comes.
– But it takes time. A very long time.
Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / VG
State Secretary in the Ministry of Business and Industry Anne Marit Bjørnflaten has not commented on Vega’s situation specifically, but has written the following in an e-mail to VG:
“The government is working to initiate one or more pilot projects for visitor contributions. The introduction of a visitor’s contribution is something completely new, and raises legal and administrative challenges. We are keen to find robust solutions and have therefore set up an interdepartmental working group to make thorough assessments. The work has a high priority, and we aim to have the scheme ready during the year.”
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Published: 28.07.23 at 19:56
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2023-07-28 17:56:16
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