Economic Development and Fiscal Policy: Tourism Taxation and Its Contribution to Municipal Revenue in the City and Borough of Juneau
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Authors
Lebbie, Emmanuel
Issue Date
2025-11
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Tourism Taxation and Its Contribution to Municipal Revenue
Alternative Title
Abstract
The problem addressed by this quantitative study was that the reliance of the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska, on tourism necessitated an evaluation of how tourism taxes aligned with municipal revenues. The relationships between the variance in tourism-related taxation, volume, and spending, and the variance in municipal revenues in the City and Borough of Juneau were explored. A partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was developed to address the population, intervention, comparison, outcome, time (PICOT) question: Based on the archived records for the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska (population), to what degree does the variance in tourism-related taxation, tourist volume, and tourist spending, after controlling for covariates (interventions), before and after taxation policy changes and the COVID-19 pandemic (comparisons), predict the variance in municipal revenues generated by taxes (outcomes) between 2010 and 2024 (time)? Covariates (i.e., tourism-linked employment and business growth) and interruptions by disruptive events (i.e., taxation changes and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020) were incorporated into the model. There were three key findings from the PLS-SEM analysis. First, tourism-related taxation significantly predicted revenue variance. The path coefficient was weak from 2010–2019 but became stronger from 2020–2024, indicating increased post-pandemic dependence. Second, tourist volume had a consistently weak predictive relationship with municipal revenue in both periods, showing limited influence without policy alignment. Third, tourist spending was the strongest predictor throughout, underscoring the importance of per-capita visitor expenditure. Assessing tourism tax roles in Juneau before and after the pandemic informed the city planners' findings, which will help devise taxation frameworks that promote tourism growth and economic development and ensure stable municipal income in the future.