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If you want to visit some place of interest you should pay for admission, it's normal. But I have a question for you Here in Russia entrance fee is double for foreigners. My friend says that it is a tax to lack of knowledge Russian language Of course it's a joke but I want to ask you - is it the same in your country? Should foreigners pay double for admission to some places of interest?

I can't remember seeing anything like that over here.

Maybe foreigners are not paying more, locals are just paying less. That would be a more polite way of putting it.

Carcass wrote:Maybe foreigners are not paying more, locals are just paying less. That would be a more polite way of putting it.

Maybe you are right

Don't think we have anything like that in Germany...which is good imo, I can't see why tourists are supposed to pay more for visting a sight than German citizens.
However, it's not like that just in Russia that foreigners gotta pay more, I've heard many South Asian countries do it the same way

sanichi wrote:Don't think we have anything like that in Germany...which is good imo, I can't see why tourists are supposed to pay more for visting a sight than German citizens.

because tourists are there and they want to see the sights, despite the price they pay. Imagine you are in Paris, you also climb up the Eiffel Tower although you have to pay the 20Euros (e.g.).

since I started studying economics, I kinda think different of such situations. I also wondered why the price for a beer is 5euros and why not lower the price to attract more people. but why lower the price to 3euros when people are willing to pay 5euros???

it's the same in Russia and other places...

According to a friend who visited Vietnam, the price of admission is generally 10 times higher for foreigners. I suppose you can look at it as subsidizing the local population so as to encourage interest in culture. I mean, students generally also receive discounts.

Though I usually get away with pretending to be Russian when visiting a Russian museum or so, so there are clearly obvious advantages to knowing the language a bit

NordicStorm wrote:Though I usually get away with pretending to be Russian when visiting a Russian museum or so, so there are clearly obvious advantages to knowing the language a bit

Do you come to Russia often?

Morgana wrote:Do you come to Russia often?

I don't know about often, but I'm in the Petersburg area on a fairly regular basis, like once or twice a year. Hopefully I'll be able to go a bit farther than that in the future...

Not here in Mexico... I mean if you're going to a museum or something. But street vendors, taxi drivers, etc. WILL try to rip you off if you look like a tourist

Babylon wrote:Not here in Mexico... I mean if you're going to a museum or something. But street vendors, taxi drivers, etc. WILL try to rip you off if you look like a tourist

lol* I've heard that too... someone rented a flat and just because she was not a citizen, she had to pay double the price

It was like that in China, but not any more - in most of the places.
We used to have lots of jokes on this too, but now there are more jokes about people talk gossips about foreigner and that foreigner just comes straight to your face and shout to you in Chinese - even in dialects
it's amazing how many foreigners speak fluent Chinese here, sometimes better than native people. I always say that Chinese is not difficult to learn at all.
so i guess it's rather hard to ask double price on "tax of lack the knowledge of the language" now.

and btw, I know some African countries are doing that for sure. My boyfriend just came back from the Victoria Waterfall some weeks ago.