Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Taxation, Tourism

"The sum of money generated is still considerable based on that," Kallas told Saarte Haal, adding that there has been talk of a 1.5 euro tourism tax per person for Saaremaa. "This would be approximately 1.5 million euros which could be generated from there and could be used to increase marketing and organize large events."

While this year the full ticket for a passenger car on the Saaremaa route is slightly over 8 euros, then local farmer Mati Tarvis said that next year it could easily be raised by up to two euros -- and exactly by tourism tax. "I do not believe that anyone would turn the other way because of that," Tarvis told the newspaper.

Kallas agreed with that. "The most reasonable thing to do would be to collect the tax as somehow linked with the ferries, should it be implemented. That would make it easier for people," he said.

Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Urve Palo said that implementing the tourism tax should be for the municipalities to decide. "It could be done in cooperation with entrepreneurs and local authorities, as if such a tax is collected, it should be clear for the entrepreneurs what will be done with that tax in the region in question in order to promote tourism," Palo said, adding that there is currently no plan to implement a tourism tax across the whole country.

While tourism tax has been boldly implemented elsewhere in the world, then Estonia seems to be wary of implementing such a tax. However, a number of municipalities are thinking about implementing the tax -- it is another question how high it should be or what the money should be used for, the news program of TV3 said.