On November 8, Niseko Town announced plans to introduce an incremental hotel tax that will be amongst some of the most expensive in Japan. The incremental tax will range from 200 ~ 2,000 Yen per person, per night and could be introduced as early as November 2024.
The tax would be in addition to the Hokkaido hotel tax of 100 ~ 500 Yen. A the top end, a room rate of 100,000 Yen will incur an additional 2,500 Yen of tax (2,000 Yen for Niseko and 500 Yen for Hokkaido) charged per person. The town is expecting to collect around 170 million Yen (US$1.13 million) per year in hotel tax revenue. This will go towards loop-line bus transport and airport transport, as well as personnel training for tourist-related jobs.
In 2018, Niseko had 508,000 overnight stays, of which 217,000 were foreign tourists. In 2022 it has over 550,000 overnight stays.
The town had originally planned to introduce a 2% fixed rate tax similar to the one in neighboring Kutchan Town, but decided to follow the incremental system used by Hokkaido Prefecture.
Sources:
The Hokkaido Shimbun, November 8, 2023.
The Nikkei Shimbun, November 8, 2023.
