Burbank among cities nationwide with lightest tax burden on travelers
Chicago, the city that brought us deep-dish pizza, Oprah and “da Bears,” is also home to the nation’s highest tax burden for travelers.
The lowest taxes imposed on travelers can be found in the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach.
Those are among the findings of new research by the GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Assn., a trade group for travel managers.
The foundation created a ranking of the destinations with the nation’s highest and lowest tax burden on travelers by combining general sales taxes and taxes charged to travelers each day for car rentals, hotel stays and meals.
For an average visit to downtown Chicago, a traveler will pay about $40.31 in combined taxes per day, according to the research. Also high on the list of travel taxes were New York ($37.98), Boston ($34.83), Kansas City, Mo., ($34.58) and Seattle ($34.43), the study said.
On the other end of the list, the study found that the three Florida cities tied for the lowest combined taxes: an average of $22.21 a day.
Orange County ($22.79), Burbank ($22.74) and Ontario ($24.08) made the list of the 10 cities with the lowest combined taxes.
-- Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times