Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Takahiro Ikeji is a researcher at the Japan Travel Bureau Foundation. His research interest includes destination marketing, destination finance, tourism policy, and overtourism. Currently he is working on the research about hotel tax, employment at Japanese style accommodation “Ryokan”, and short-term rentals.

Yuichi YAMADA, Ph.D., is a General Manager and a Senior Researcher at the Japan Travel Bureau Foundation (JTBF) in Tokyo, a non-profit organization whose mission is the development of tourism culture. He is involved in research and consulting activities for destination marketing and branding.

Abstract (150 Words)

Accommodation tax has been used to finance destination management in many places, but it has often received strong opposition from the tourism industry, especially the accommodation sector. Previous studies on accommodation tax failed to investigate the process of introducing this tax from the industry’s perspective, and mostly focused on how demand changes in response to the introduction of the tax. This study explored the accommodation managers’ attitudes toward the introduction of accommodation tax, using perceived fairness as a mediating variable. The results suggest that managers who consider their businesses to be in a poor economic condition tend to perceive the tax as unfair, leading to a low level of support for it. This study also found that managers who believe their peers (i.e., managers of other accommodations) are opposing the tax are likely to perceive it as an unfair tax, again leading to less support.

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How to gain accommodation managers’ support for accommodation tax? Exploring the mediating role of perceived fairness

Accommodation tax has been used to finance destination management in many places, but it has often received strong opposition from the tourism industry, especially the accommodation sector. Previous studies on accommodation tax failed to investigate the process of introducing this tax from the industry’s perspective, and mostly focused on how demand changes in response to the introduction of the tax. This study explored the accommodation managers’ attitudes toward the introduction of accommodation tax, using perceived fairness as a mediating variable. The results suggest that managers who consider their businesses to be in a poor economic condition tend to perceive the tax as unfair, leading to a low level of support for it. This study also found that managers who believe their peers (i.e., managers of other accommodations) are opposing the tax are likely to perceive it as an unfair tax, again leading to less support.