Load up the micro bus, grab the tie dye and hit the road. It’s protestin’ time and we don’t even need the G20 to show up.
No, we’re talkin’ about a revolution: One that means tourist destinations that don’t make travelers pay through the nose for everything thing they buy once they arrive at a hot tourist destination.
See, one of the reasons traveling has gotten so expensive is because local governments love tourists in that way that includes grabbing tourists by their ankles and shaking them upside down until all of their money falls out.
Many small minded town politicians view tourists as money machines and tax the hell out of anything an out of towner might want to enjoy — luxuries like food and shelter. The small minded/big picture kind of thinking goes like this: Hey, those guys are from out of town, they can’t vote here, let’s rob them. Ever see the room tax on a hotel room in New York City? 
That’s why TravelersFirst.org was formed – to help make travel a little fairer and avoid things like double taxation (without representation) on hotel rooms booked online. What happens often now, the group points out, is once on the cost of the hotel room and a second time on the service fees for booking the room.
That’s what the organization wants the federal government to pass the Internet Travel Tax Fairness Act, a special interest kind of law but one, we are actually interested in following.
“America’s travelers will no longer silently watch as tourism taxes rise,” said Art Sackler, Executive 
Director of the Interactive Travel Services Association. “Tens of millions of Americans use online travel sites every year to book vacations, plan trips, and visit friends and family, yet their voices have been missing from policy debates over important travel issues like new taxes and regulation.”
That may be a little over the top, and, frankly, we support the online sites making a few dollars for booking a room or flight, but eventually, we hope this group goes all Tea Party on the taxes and gets the focus it needs without getting all douchie.
Until then, we’ll keep watching. Fight the power.
