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Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia

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Slovenia

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Central & local administratione-GovernmentGovernanceTax administration efficiencyTransport, tourism, agriculture

Organisation name Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia

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Contact person: Nina Zakrajšek

nina.zakrajsek@gov.si

Aiming at mitigating the effects of Covid-19 on the tourism industry in Slovenia, the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia has set the goal to develop a simple, reliable and effective solution for citizens and accommodation providers. This has been achieved through tourist vouchers for Slovenian residents.

Beneficiaries do not receive the voucher in a physical or printed form, but it is a credit in the information system, managed by Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia. The tourist voucher is divisible, meaning that the beneficiary can use it multiple times. The voucher can also be transferred between family members –between family partners, and between the second-degree relatives.

The Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia pays the accommodation providers the amount of money for the vouchers twice a month. The project relates to approximately 2 million beneficiaries and 6 000 accommodation providers.

The team implemented the solution on the portal e-Taxes and created a web service. A new section to the mobile app e-Taxes was created, where users could see and check the balance of their tourist voucher. The team created a web page and listed all the information about tourist vouchers, shared information about where and how to use the tourist vouchers, and organised educational webinars for accommodation providers. The residents and accommodation providers could send their queries to a designated email address or by phone.

Tourist vouchers contributed to supporting the tourism industry, including other industries such as catering, culture, sports and other activities. Slovenia is an attractive tourist destination, annually visited by many tourists from all over the world. To prevent excessive losses, the institution helped the industry by the increased demand of the local population based on the new voucher system.

In only 10 days, the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia managed to implement, educate and promote the tourist vouchers. Up to 23 April 2021, more than 950 000 tourist vouchers were used. Tourist vouchers were fully or partially cashed for 53 864 beneficiaries (accommodation providers) to a total value of EUR 7 925 181.77.

The tourist vouchers were most often used by beneficiaries from the city of Ljubljana (12.5% of all vouchers), the city of Maribor (4.8% of all vouchers) and the municipality of Kranj (2.7% of all vouchers). Beneficiaries most often used hotels (28.4% of all accommodation), apartment complexes (23.1%) or tourist farms (10.2%).

The measure has a strong multiplier effect. On the assumption that tourism would suffer up to 70% in lost income, the project could ease the loss. The expected increase in demand is valued at EUR 600 million. Each beneficiary (citizen) is expected to spend EUR 200 in addition to the government’s stimulus. In total, the multiplier effect on the economy is EUR 928 million. The multiplier effect on the gross salaries is EUR 521 million (gross salaries for the staff that remain employed due to the increase in work and fewer redundancies). Losses in tourism are reduced by one third; consequently, the tourist sector ended the year 2020 with average losses of between 25% and 30%, instead of 70%.

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