Zakopane wants a new tourist tax. The bill has been submitted to the Sejm.

"Introducing an additional source of funding for tourist municipalities is justified, as they incur additional expenses related to, among other things, organizing the arrival and stay of tourists," says the Zakopane City Council. It has submitted a petition to the Sejm (lower house of parliament) requesting the introduction of a new levy: a tourist tax.

Already, towns that attract tourists can impose special fees: local (also known as climate fees) or spa fees. Indeed, Zakopane has for years charged a local fee of 2 złoty for every first day of stay. This fee was collected by hoteliers and guesthouse owners and then paid to the city hall. Problems arose when Bogdan Achimescu, a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and a mountain enthusiast, opposed this a decade ago.

The legal dispute over the local tax in Zakopane has been going on for 10 years

During his stay in Zakopane, he questioned the collection of the fee because he felt the air in the city was polluted. He noted that, according to government regulations, the local fee could only be collected in zones where the air quality met stringent standards. At the time, the entire Małopolska zone was classified as a low class C by the General Inspectorate for Environmental Protection.

The ASP professor launched a lengthy legal battle, supported by the ClientEarth Foundation, Lawyers for Earth. The case reached the Supreme Administrative Court, which ruled the local tax illegal on April 1, 2025.

The capital of the Polish Tatra Mountains, however, didn't give up so easily. On April 12th, it announced that the payment obligation was once again in effect, but at a slightly lower rate – 1.90 PLN per day. The legal basis for the decision was a new resolution of the city council adopted in March. When it turned out that the Regional Chamber of Audit in Kraków could overturn the decision, the city authorities, situated beneath Mount Giewont, decided that the tourist fee was 2 PLN after all, based on yet another resolution from 2013, which has not yet been overturned by the court.

Even earlier, Zakopane councilors had begun lobbying for the adoption of a new solution: a tourist tax. The mayor sent the petition, which was recently registered in the Sejm, based on a resolution passed by the city council.

What does it imply? According to the councilors, in addition to the local and resort fees, a tourist fee should also be introduced into the legal system. It would be imposed by city councils "in the event of the inability to collect a local or resort fee" in all towns with hotel accommodation, with a maximum fee of PLN 2.65 per night.

According to Zakopane, the fee would be a compensation for the costs of maintaining the infrastructure

How do councilors near Giewont justify this? In their opinion, tourist towns, struggling with the annual influx of visitors, must incur higher infrastructure costs. "Some tourists treat the local tax as a tax that goes into someone else's pocket and someone gets rich off it. However, it's nothing more than compensation for the municipality for overexploitation. Zakopane is a town of 25,000 people, visited by 4-5 million people in the summer. This results in the maintenance of roads and sidewalks, garbage collection expenses, and other costs that are covered by residents, not all of whom are businesses in the tourism industry," says Zakopane councilor Tymoteusz Mróz.

He notes that in recent years, his city has made tremendous efforts to improve air quality. "Currently, in practice, we don't exceed the standards. It's no exaggeration to say that the air in Zakopane is already clean, although we're still striving to improve it. The problem is that, according to the current regulations regarding local taxes, air quality standards must be met by the entire Małopolska region, which includes Zakopane, and unfortunately, we have no control over this," he adds.

Zakopane isn't the only city lobbying for the idea of introducing a tourist fee. Krakow, which also struggles with air pollution, has also repeatedly raised the issue. Krakow councilors last submitted a resolution on the matter to the government in October 2024.

Tourist tax may weaken pressure on local authorities to care for the environment, expert warns

Is the new tax really a good idea? According to Kamila Drzewicka, senior lawyer at ClientEarth Lawyers for Earth, "the idea of introducing a nationwide tourist tax, independent of air quality, seems justified in the context of the financial needs of tourist destinations." "However, it's worth remembering that in a situation where air quality in most of the country leaves much to be desired, the climate tax plays an important role. It's not only a source of revenue and a tool to motivate local governments to improve the environment, but also a guarantee for tourists that they can count on a "healthy" holiday in a given location," she emphasizes.

He adds that abolishing the requirement for tourist destinations to meet basic environmental standards would weaken both the mechanisms guaranteeing the quality of recreation and the pressure on local authorities to take care of the quality of air and the environment.

What will the Parliamentary Petitions Committee do with Zakopane's proposal? It has three months to consider it. In April, it considered a similar petition concerning a local tax, based on which it decided to send a request to the government. There has been no response yet.