The new Electronic Travel Authorisation charge, effective from April 8, imposes a £20 fee on overseas travelers entering the UK, which could dampen inbound travel volumes across key business hubs.
Selina Chadha, group director of consumer markets at the CAA, stated, 'Our primary duty is to protect consumers and at the heart of today's proposals is doing the right thing for passengers using Heathrow airport, while supporting sustainable growth, investment, and efficiency.'
Dublin doesn't provide enough value for visitors to make the proposed tourist bed tax worthwhile, especially when the city is characterized by overflowing bins and littered streets.
Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia - famous for its modernist architecture, world-renowned museums and contemporary foodie scene - welcomed 16 million visitors last year, a figure that has been rising significantly since its post-pandemic levels of around 12.4 million in 2022.
At restaurants in Italy, an average of 10 to 15 percent is appreciated. When it comes to drivers and tour guides, the average is 10 percent, but many leave more.
Under current rules, once a business exceeds £90,000 in taxable turnover, it must register for VAT and charge 20 per cent on most goods and services. Registration also brings quarterly reporting requirements and compliance costs, often requiring specialist accounting support.
From April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027, the law will progressively increase the tax for holiday rental guests to a maximum of €12.5 per night, up from €6.25. Hotel guests would pay a maximum of between €10 and €15, up from the current €5 to €7.5, depending on the category of the hotel. Luxury establishments will be able to charge more per guest, according to the law.
Artificial intelligence is no longer futuristic-it's functional. Hotels are already utilizing AI to integrate siloed systems, such as PMS, accounting, CRM, and forecasting platforms, to drive faster and smarter decisions. Tools like Placer.ai and PredictHQ help identify ideal customers through demographic, behavioral, and geolocation data. As automation expands, the next opportunity lies in strategic human oversight: consultants and managers will interpret AI outputs, guiding capital investments and operational priorities rather than being replaced by algorithms.
InterContinental Hotels Group, owner of Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, and Hotel Indigo, reported robust revenue and profit growth for 2025, driven by a record hotel rollout and strategic acquisitions. The group opened 443 new hotels over the past year - adding more than 65,000 rooms - and completed its acquisition of the European hotel brand Ruby. Financially, IHG posted total revenue of $5.19 billion (£3.8 billion), up 5% from 2024, while operating profits rose 15% to $1.2 billion (£880 million).
But for many hotels, visibility-and sometimes survival-comes at the expense of profits. That dynamic is now at the heart of Beijing's antitrust probe. Regulators allege Trip.com is abusing its market position, with analysts citing deflation across the sector as the government's main concern. Interviews with lodging operators, industry groups and travel consultants describe a system where constant price-cutting and opaque policies are eroding profitability, even as demand rebounds.
Starting Jan. 1, 2026, updated reporting obligations require crypto platforms operating in the EU or serving EU users to provide detailed information on users and their transactions to tax authorities. This change aligns digital assets more closely with the transparency requirements long established in conventional finance.
Austria's government has agreed on a list of everyday foods that will be taxed at a lower VAT rate from July, in a move it said should reduce prices for households and slightly dampen inflation. According to ORF, the Council of Ministers approved the product range on Wednesday after intensive discussions. The reduced VAT rate of 4.9 percent, down from ten percent, is set to apply from July 1st. The government also set an upper cost limit of 400 million for the measure, ORF reported.
Online total Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) totalled £1.42 billion. That was a figure 8 percent higher than in the same period for the previous year. Real event betting GGY also increased with the total of £508 million being 12 percent up year-on-year. Despite those new stake limits, the GGY for online slots was up 9 percent to £747 million. The number of spins rose by 4% to 24.4 billion.
