4 ms·

Lisbon restaurants' secret tax on out-of-towners

• ggm 2y ago
  It might be illegal but it is also understandable. comprehensible. If you were a local, this is the kind of initiative you might actually feel ok about. The formalism of an entry tax like Venice just begs questions how it is spent. Not surprisingly there is very low trust in discretionary funds distribution from local government in a lot of places. This initiative avoids tax, avoids supervision, has massive problems including systematic racism almost built into it (don't like chinese people? charge them double..) So I hasten to add I don't "approve" of this, but I can totally see why they got here. And, I am reasonably sure in 25 years of business travel I have informally accepted some level of this, because opportunities to contest a printed menu bill you are proffered are few and far between. Since I was on expenses I took it in my stride. I don't see the point in being upset about things when there is a 3 to 1 or better income advantage on the floor. The other side of this, restaurants in Venice charging dupe tourists thousands of euros for a glass of prosecco and lobster rolls is really bad. It's been a thing to lard the bill for rich out-of-town for centuries, worldwide. This kind of "local tax" approach is different, but equally contestable from the moral bleachers.