The fee you didn’t know you were paying to leave a country
By Lilit Marcus, CNN
(CNN) — Kevin Miller considers himself a bit of a travel pro. The photographer says he’s able to fit all of his camera gear into a carry-on bag and mentally puts himself into “airplane mode” as soon as he closes the door on his taxi, a process singularly pointed at getting himself through the airport as quickly and efficiently as possible.
But on one fateful day in Bali in 2013, his usual machine-level precision hit an unexpected wrinkle. He’d checked in, selected a seat, spent the last of his Indonesian rupiah on a souvenir in the airport, and zoomed through the security line. Then he was asked to pay a departure fee.
Miller admits he was frustrated but quickly set to work getting the money — it had to be cash — he needed to exit the airport. But it was early in the morning and the currency exchange counters were yet to open, and none of the ATMs were functioning. Finally, an American tourist took pity on him and handed Miller the needed bills. When he asked to get the man’s business card to repay him later, the man shook his head and said he’d been in the same situation before.
“It felt like a curveball because it came out of nowhere,” Miller says. Due to the extra time spent running around the airport, he and his wife missed their flight to Kuala Lumpur.
“We had to catch the next flight, which we had to pay for, because it was an airport issue and not an airline issue.”
A ‘regressive’ tax?
Thousands of passengers pay departure taxes every day, but most have no idea. While some countries still ask for cash in hand from tourists as they leave the airport, most of these fees are baked into the cost of airline tickets. Indonesia, where Miller had his hectic experience, moved to this system in 2014.
These fees, though, are common. Most departure taxes go toward infrastructure projects, including maintaining the very airports they’re collected in.
According to a report released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), airports around the world collected a total of $60.4 billion in departure taxes and other similar fees in 2024, an average of $6.80 per passenger. Generally, these fees are highest in North America and lowest in Asia-Pacific.
In 2024, Argentina charged the highest rate, amounting to an average of $138 per passenger, according to IATA. Behind it were Mauritius, Mexico, the UK, the Dominican Republic, the US, Egypt and Kenya.
Are these fees worth it? IATA would say no.
“Air ticket taxes are regressive in nature and may conflict with broader economic and social objectives as they place a significant burden on the traveling public, and do not meaningfully contribute to the government’s budgets,” says the group in its report, which was released in November 2025.
In the travel industry, fees like these have become a major talking point in the post-pandemic years, as rising overtourism continues to strain resources around the world.
Japan, which has been struggling with recent increases in visitor numbers, debuted a “sayonara tax” of 1,000 yen (about $6) in 2019 and has just announced plans to triple it. This cost is added to airline ticket prices, not collected in person.
A need for transparency?
These tourist fees have different names all over the world and aren’t centralized, making it harder for travelers to know what exactly they’re paying for.
In Australia’s airports, it’s called a Passenger Movement Charge and costs $70AUD ($40 US). In the UK, the Air Passenger Duty varies based on destination, with a maximum of £253 ($336) for long-haul flights. In Mexico, it’s the TUA (Tarifa de Uso de Aeropuerto) and each airport gets to set its own rate.
Some places, though, have decided these fees aren’t worth it. Sweden abolished its air travel tax last year. It was part of a larger effort to get rid of some short-haul flight routes and encourage people to travel by train or ferry instead.
“As tourists, we have to be mindful that we put a lot of strain on resources. We’re using water, we are using electricity, we are using the roads, and they do need to kind of offset that,” says Anna Abelson, a hospitality professor at New York University.
While there are still some destinations that want cash in hand, Abelson says that such experiences — like the one Miller went through in Bali — tend to be unpopular with tourists.
As the professor says, forking over money before being able to board their plane “creates friction.” It upsets travelers who don’t want to feel like they’re paying a bribe, or who don’t want their last memory of an otherwise beautiful holiday to be one like Kevin Miller’s, of frantically dashing around the airport in hope of finding a working ATM.
In her experience, travelers often don’t mind paying these fees if they know upfront exactly what they’re paying for. Transparency, she says, is key.
“Destinations should be more upfront, more creative, and really explaining why it’s happening and why they need it.”
Abelson cites the Palau Pledge as an example of how a government can positively introduce a tourist fee to travelers.
The tiny island nation near the Philippines only gets a few thousand tourists every year. But the country’s deep commitment to environmental protection led it to create a pledge that every visitor must sign and agree to before being allowed into the country.
The Palau Pledge, which is stamped into their passport, opens with: “Children of Palau, I take this pledge, as your guest, to preserve and protect your beautiful and unique island home. I vow to tread lightly, act kindly and explore mindfully.”
But the pledge isn’t just a pinky-swear. Visitors who are found to be in violation can be fined as much as one million dollars.
Even the most experienced travelers can be caught out of hand with in-person tourist taxes.
Abelson, for example, realized she was out of cash and needed to pay an in-person exit fee at the airport on a recent vacation to Saint Lucia.
She ended up borrowing the money from someone else in her group.
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