Norway's tourist tax in 2027: how the law works and which municipalities are introducing it

Norway has had a tourist tax law since 1 July 2026, and no municipality is charging anything under it yet. The besøksbidrag law and the national forskrift om overnattingsavgift both entered into force on that date, opening a process that each municipality has to complete on its own. The earliest anyone can collect is 1 January 2027.

Where things stand, at a glance

Status on 18 August 2026. No municipality is charging yet, and the earliest possible start is 1 January 2027.

What the besøksbidrag law actually does

The law creates one national levy on paid overnight stays, called overnattingsavgift, and hands municipalities the choice of whether to use it. Adopting it is voluntary and the design is national, so a municipality decides yes or no and picks the months, while the rate and the scope come from national law.

The rate is 3 percent of the accommodation price excluding VAT. A municipality cannot pick a different percentage and cannot replace it with a fixed amount per person. The accommodation industry argued for a fixed amount throughout the consultation rounds, and a representative proposal to change the calculation basis was rejected by the Storting on 2 June 2026. The percentage stands.

The income is earmarked. It has to go to tourism related public goods such as paths, toilets, parking and visitor information, the things whose use rises with visitor numbers, and it cannot be used to balance the municipal budget. Administrative costs of running the levy may be covered from it.

Only municipalities that can document a particularly heavy burden from tourism may introduce it at all. The law and the forskrift leave that condition undefined, which is one of the largest open questions in the system. NHO Reiseliv, the hospitality industry association, asked for clearer criteria during the consultation and says it did not get them.

How a municipality gets from wanting the levy to charging it

The route runs in four steps. The municipality adopts a plan for how it will spend the income, submits that plan to the Ministry of Trade, Fisheries and Food, receives approval, which cannot be appealed, and then adopts and publishes its own local forskrift. Municipalities may submit a joint plan for a region.

A local regulation normally has to be published by 31 December of the year before it applies, and a transitional rule removes that deadline for regulations taking effect in 2027. That single exception is what makes 2027 hard to plan for. A Norwegian municipality can approve its regulation and switch the levy on partway through next year with very little warning, and anyone selling stays there has to be ready to charge 3 percent from the date it starts. NHO Reiseliv asked for a grace period between adoption and the first charge and did not get one.

A municipality can apply the levy all year or only in selected months, which Bodø proposes to use to limit it to the summer season. The full picture sits in the Norway tourist tax guide.

Who charges the levy and who pays it to the municipality

The default is that the party offering the accommodation for payment charges the levy and remits it. Section 2-4 of the law adds an exception that decides the answer for booking platforms. Where the provider is not registered in the Norwegian VAT register and uses a third party to both market the stay and collect the payment, that intermediary carries the obligation towards the municipality. A private host letting through Airbnb does not remit. Airbnb does. An intermediary is not held liable for underpayment caused by incorrect information from the provider, and where several intermediaries sell the same stay, the forskrift decides which one carries the duty.

Scope covers paid stays of under 30 consecutive days in hotels, hotel ships, hostels and other accommodation businesses, including private letting outside a business, where the guest has use of the place between 00:00 and 06:00. Short term rentals booked through Airbnb, FINN.no and comparable platforms are in scope. Guests' own caravans, motorhomes and tents fall outside, while camping cabins rented out by a campsite are covered. The charge follows the date of the stay rather than the booking date, so a stay that straddles a start date is charged only for the nights from that date onwards. The government's questions and answers page carries the full exemption list.

Municipality status in detail

Tromsø decided on 24 June 2026 to introduce the levy and said it would submit its spending plan to the ministry on 1 July 2026. Ministry approval and a published local regulation are both still outstanding, so nothing is being charged in Tromsø.

In Lofoten, Vågan consulted on its own local regulation with a deadline of 10 August 2026 and is working towards collection from 1 January 2027. The outcome of that consultation has not been published.

Bodø is further along than most. It put a draft regulation and a spending plan out for consultation on 3 July 2026, with a deadline of 26 August 2026. The proposal applies the levy from 1 April to 30 September each year, with the regulation taking effect on 1 January 2027 and collection starting 1 April 2027. Bodø also proposes a committee on which the tourism industry holds the majority and recommends each year how the money is spent.

Bergen has said it wants the levy. No approved plan and no local regulation have been published so far.

Oslo decided against introducing it for now, a decision the city can revisit later.

Longyearbyen sits under a separate national proposal for Svalbard. Its consultation closed on 3 June 2026 and is still being processed. The draft sets a fixed amount per night alongside a 3 percent alternative, and nothing has been settled.

Is the cruise levy happening too?

A national regulation for a cruise levy of 100 NOK per passenger per commenced 24 hour period in port went out for consultation in spring 2026, with a deadline of 22 June 2026. It is planned to enter into force on 1 January 2027 and remains a proposal. Ships on the Bergen to Kirkenes coastal route fall within it, passengers travelling on a leg they chose themselves are left out of the calculation, and scheduled passenger ferries between Norway and foreign ports are exempt. A municipality that wants to apply the cruise levy during 2027 has to send its spending plan to the ministry by 31 January 2027.

What to watch before January

Adopted local regulations appear in Lovdata's register of local regulations, which is the reliable place to confirm whether a Norwegian municipality has actually put one in force. Bodø's consultation closes on 26 August 2026, and further Lofoten council decisions have been reported as expected during September 2026. The government has also given around 1 million NOK to the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities to examine a shared digital solution for collecting the levy, which would reduce the number of separate municipal systems accommodation businesses have to deal with.

Trippz tracks each Norwegian municipality separately, so once a local regulation is published the rate and its start date are maintained the same way as every other jurisdiction Trippz covers.

See how Trippz keeps tourist tax rates and start dates current for booking platforms