Tourism goes Kiez

Kristoffer Möller

Now they’re finally in my district. They’re sitting in my bar, drinking my beer. They’re waving at me in the morning when I go to work – these “tourists”. It’s not Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz or Ku’damm anymore, it’s the Wrangelkiez, Simon-Dach-Straße, it’s right here. Political events as organised by the Green Party in the Wrangelkiez (“Hilfe, die Touris kommen”) or the campaign “Berlin doesn’t love you” are picking up the debate. However, one needs to be careful in “kicking out tourists”. With a turnover of almost nine billion Euros, tourism is a key economic sector, employing a great number of Berliners.

So, what’s the problem? Well, as economist, it’s a classic externality problem: The price tourists pay to experience Berlin does not cover the full cost. While the gastronomy and hotel sector might benefit from positive externalities, residents living in the respective areas suffer from negative external costs like noise, higher price levels or in my case all these “cocktail bunkers”. In order to overcome this market failure, one must include (internalise) these additional costs in the price tourists pay. One could for example apply a tax like the so called “city tax” where tourists would have to pay 2.50 Euros/day. If the tax revenues stay in the Kiez (city neighbourhood) by cleaning parks and sidewalks or by setting up public toilets, residents would have to bear less social costs. Unfortunately, as planned the money would be raised by the City of Berlin and not by the individual districts. Another problem: Does this tax really affect tourist flows? Are today’s easy-jetters and backpackers really affected by a tax of 2.50?

This brings us to the main question: Who are these people anyway driving up local rents, partying loudly all night long and packing out the Mauerpark? Is it really tourists? Can you distinguish between a tourist, a recent settler or a “real Berliner”? Well, I don’t think so! I simply think that there’s a big group of young people in Berlin who want to enjoy their lives in the Kiez. Blaming tourists doesn’t solve anything and would only create social aggression and economic problems. The only way of calming down the districts would be a local beer tax of 2.50 Euro/bottle – do we really want that?

Got to go – it’s happy hour now.