Higher Departure Tax in Ecuador
February 18th, 2007 Posted in Cheap Latin America Travel, Destination reports, Long-term travel
This Ecuador news came out December 10, but I just saw it buried in a travel magazine news update. The airport departure tax in Quito has gone up to US$37.93. We’re not sure how they came up with such an odd number since Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar as its currency anyway. A ploy to get everyone to donate 7 cents to the charity box? (Is there one there? I don’t even know.) Regardless, considering that amount of money will pay for a cheap hotel room and three meals for two in much of the country, that’s a chunk of change. We guess you could sleep in the airport to make up for it.
The worst part is, they’re not done. This August the fee will go up to $40.25 and in August 2008 it will go up to $42.56. If you leave from Guayaquil instead, you get off a little easier: $25.
Unfortunately, soaking the tourists to pay for the maintenance work is common practice in Latin America, so it’s hard to avoid these extortion fees. Costa Rica charges $26, Peru charges $30.25, Brazil adds $36, Mexico hits you up for $38, and Chile charges a brazen $100. In some of these cases, the fee is included in your flight ticket, so you just think the airline flight costs are crazy until you until you look at the taxes folded in (including the ones from your home country–which are probably also not pretty).
