Thanks for your comments, Jim and Julie.

Hi Alexis!
Glad to hear I’m not the only one!
I enjoyed your article on Matador recently… I will have to check out your blog too. Thanks for your comment!

After I backpacked through Africa, I think my family felt relieved, like I’d gotten it out of my system. I can’t bring myself to tell them that this is a lifestyle, a mindset — not a one-time trip. I’m gonna go again at some point!

That’s a good point about foreign owned enterprises in high-end tourism. I wonder if there’s any stats on that, I’d be interested in knowing the numbers although I have the feeling you’re probably right.

I wouldn’t totally underestimate higher end tourists, though. At the risk of generalizing based on my own experiences, I will anyways. Working at the store for the weaving cooperative, a backpacker would come in and buy a 2$ bracelet. But send a shuttle bus full of wealthy middle-aged ladies in, and they’d buy their weight in hand-made, fair-trade textiles.

Anyways, you still have me half convinced! I guess the problem is that we have no assurances that the taxes are ever gonna end up somewhere useful, whether “official” or not.

I’ll spare you the never-ending argument this time.

I look forward to that bottle of rum.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment

Caitlin

Your rebuttal is good.

Bob’s comment shows a good beginning place: Is there a difference between entrance and exit fees?

I agree that there is. Entrance fees are in your face, you often know that you have to pay them — it is all clear, you either pay in advance when you apply for a visa or you pay a few bucks upon entering. I have paid some pretty heavy visa fees for residence permits and all of that, but the “at the port of entry” entrance fees that I have paid, I don’t think any of them have ever topped $10.

What gets me is the exit fees. These are usually cloaked in obscurity. Sometimes they are included with your flight out, sometimes they are not — sometimes they are but you are charged anyway. It is confusing, they seem to be way more of a hack charge than anything else. Anyway, what are you really paying for?

You are paying for the right to go free — to get out of jail. In Mexico, I pushed the immigration officials really hard, I wanted to see what they would do if I refused to pay: they would not let me leave the country, I was held in limbo. I just needed to test the waters of these fees.

If you arrive in a country and refuse to pay the entrance fee, they make you leave. If you are trying to leave a country and refuse to pay, you are held captive.

What are you paying for as you are leaving? You receive nothing for this: it is just a charge that can be waged against people they think have too much disposable income, it is greed.

And I fear that this greed is going to impact travel drastically in this upcoming decade: these exit fees are more or less a new phenomenon.

You are very correct, countries can charge travelers whatever they wish, but I — and many other travelers — can decide which places they travel to.

I like your description of backpackers, but I think that you may have underestimated the importance of independent travelers on local economies. I am in Guatemala now, and I know that you were just here.

Many countries are trying to move towards high income low density tourism — they are trying to cultivate a tourism industry for the upper class that will do everything “in private” and not make strong demands on a country’s infrastructure.

This is great for governments, as they can collect the tax dollars, but it is my impression that it is not good for the people in the tourism industries on the ground.

If you do a quick — and very unscientific — survey of upper class tourism, it becomes apparent that most of this shit is owned my major foreign enterprises. It has very little impact on the local economy outside of employee wages: the tourists are shuttled into the resorts, they stay there for a few days, they are shuttled out. These places have little to do with the local economies of the places they are located.

I as just in Labadie village in Haiti. The Royal Caribbean cruise line has leased a nearby beach, and three times a week 6,000 wealthy tourist come on the beach to play. But NONE of these tourists come into the village, which is within view of the beach, they are not permitted to land on real Haitian soil, they are ill advised to interact with the local people. This enterprise which brings into Haiti 18,0000 tourists a week has next to no impact on the local economies: the people in the village are still making beds by hand and smoking bees out of hives for the honey. The place has been almost untouched by mass tourism.

[but the people smile there far more than in Bangkok, Otavalo, or other tourist epicenters]

I would not underestimate the impact that the dirty backpacker and independent traveler really has on an economy. It is the independent travelers who are on the ground, buying junk, drinking beer, taking local operated transport, and putting their money into the economy.

Excessive entrance and exit fees prohibit this type of travel. Look at Bolivia. I was in the area around 9 years ago, the country was looking like it was about to become the next Peru, then they began charging ridiculous fees to enter — enough money to even prohibit wealth tourists from entering. Bolivian tourism has been on the decline ever since.

Maybe this is for the best, maybe tourism is nothing more than cultural pollution that governments want to inhibit. But I doubt it. It is my impression that the governments are simply greedy: they want the money for themselves.

The amount of “taxes” that goes into government official’s pockets cannot be underestimated, as we saw in a more literal sense in the Dominican Republic haha.

But this is not my call — governments can do what they want. It is my choice if I want to go to their country or not, pay their fees.

I was annoyed with the exit fees in the Dominican Republic because I had been lead to believe that this tax would be included with my ticket (I paid $65 for the ticket and $80 in taxes) but it wasn’t. For a single traveler these fees many seem mild — they were for me before I began traveling with a family. But a family of four would have to pay $100 just to leave the country, and $40 to enter.

If countries want to lessen their tourism, then charging these fees is a good way to do so. If I need to spend $130(almost $400 with my family) to get into one country or can go to another for free, you know what I am going to decide to do. It is my impression that many independent travelers, the people who are in the streets, buying things, not enclosed in the resorts, the people handing over their money, are going to make the same decision as I.

Many of these fees are just government officials comparing dick sizes with countries like the USA and Canada: “If you charge our citizens this much money, we are going to charge you the same.”

People from poor countries have a reputation for overstaying their visas in the USA, Canada, England, Europe and working illegally. It makes sense, if I could make 10 times as much money from overstaying my visa and working illegally in a country, you better believe that I am going to do it.

Bob’s point stands: it costs ten times the amount of money to travel in the USA or Canada as it does in Latin America, Ghana, or most of the world. The reason why I don’t travel in expensive countries without working is because I can’t afford it, the reason why I have not really traveled in Canada (other than vacations over the border as a kid — I am from Buffalo is because it is that I can’t afford it and can’t work there)People from the countries that have reputations for overstaying visas and working illegally will face higher entrance requirements.

These high fees are staked for a reason. I don’t agree with them, but these reasons are different from why I am charged $131 to go to Bolivia.

It is my impression that Bolivia has no fear that I am going to undercut the local workforce and overstay my visa. But they charge me the same amount of money as it does for a Bolivian to visit the USA. Perhaps this is fair, but the reasoning “I am going to do this to you because you do this to me” in my opinion does not stand.

The reasons for these fees are different.

Bolivia is far more dependent on American tourism than the USA is on Bolivia.

Though I do not exempt my own country from criticism, heavy borders benefits nobody.

It is my impression that we could go on forever about this, Caitlin, if given a table, two chairs, and a bottle of rum.

Hopefully, we will meet in person soon.

Thanks,

Wade

Thanks for commenting.

I guess there is a difference between entry and exit taxes. I guess it depends on how they do it. For instance, when entering Belize they make it REALLY clear (like signs everywhere) that you’re gonna pay 25 bucks upon exit. However, it’s a lot shadier if they spring it on you without much warning.

Well, anyways I’m a Canadian and we love taxes. Ha ha ha. Not really.

But as a NON-Budget traveler, I look at entry taxes as a bad, but acceptable idea. I understand the US charges high fees for people from other countries, which is even harder for the poorer countries to pay. But the US is expensive, so you could argue either side of this one. But an entry tax says *if you want to come here, you must pay this much*. I can clearly decide, before my trip, whether to go or not. Kinda like ordering something on the web and paying shipping. As long as you can find out what the shipping it, OK.

But an exit tax is different. It is saying, if you come here, we will hold you up. It is like ordering something from the web, and finding out after you confirm your order that there is an additional processing fee. Or getting on a bus and having to pay extra to get off. Even if you know about it in advance, it just seems shady. When I enter a country and pay an entry tax (assuming I expected it) I don’t flinch. But to pay an exit tax, even if I know about it, boils my blood.

And there are LOTS of sneaky taxes, in all countries, including (especially?) *western* countris. They all make my blood boil.