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TOURISM TAX COLLECTION SETS RECORDS, OUTLOOK FOR NEXT YEAR POSITIVE

FONTAINEBLEAU, NAPOLEON -- The Aldurian Capital District, along with the states of Biscarrose, Asuara, Compostela, Napoleon, Valenciana, and Valladares, have set records for tourist tax collections in the recently ended budget year, and is looking for another strong year ahead.

Each state allocates the revenues of its Tourism Development Tax differently, but the states of Biscarrose, Asuara, Napoleon, Valenciana, and Valladares, collectively known as the Southern Aldurian Riviera, have all earmarked the high tax revenue to increase tourism marketing, improving beaches and parks, sustainable waste management, and more tourism-related capital projects.

Newly released data shows that the states collected on average 18.7 million Aldurian ecus. The revenues come from a Tourism Development Tax on hotel rooms and other short-term rentals that each state has individually implemented. The total collections exceeded estimates from the Department of Interior's Office of Tourism had predicted at the beginning of the budget year by several million ecus.
 

 

The Office of Tourism is projecting a 3.6% increase in tourism for 1679 AN, fueled by the rise in tourism especially from neighboring Constancia. Tourists are also coming in droves from Natopia, Ransenar, the Wechua Nation, and the Florian Republic.

Experts believe that the tax collection growth will continue as tourism numbers continue to grow.

This thread will contain all the important announcements, rules, and FYIs for the upcoming Aldurian general election in 1678 AN (November 2019), which includes:

• Presidential elections;
  
• Parliamentary elections.
  

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PUNTA SANTIAGO, ALDURIA (NABC News) -- Negotiations between two of the nation's largest shipping companies and the Aldurian Union of Teamsters (AUT) have broken down, leading the union to set a vote for a strike at its next general meeting in two days.

The truck drivers and warehouse workers who serve the Port of Punta Santiago are asking for an improvement of their working condition, a wage increase of 35%, and a reversal of the recent classification of drivers as independent contractors.

Aldurian Logistics and Kerularios & Company are the companies targeted by this strike, the companies unionized two years ago.

The vote will ask union membership to strike if an agreement cannot be reached. This would be the first strike by the port employees. The union contends that the truck drivers have been wrongly classified as independent contractors, rather than employees, and are not paid the wages they are owed. The union also highlights poor working conditions, stagnant wages, and lack of benefits.

"The shipping corporations of Punta Santiago have a long history of violating workers' rights, and our members are sending a message that we're not going to take it anymore. They all unilaterally changing workers' pay and work assignments, and then demand we work long hours with no benefits. The pay has not increased for any of us in over two years, but trade volume here has doubled in that same time. Our members felt they had no choice but to strike in order to send these corporations and this Government that enables them a wake-up call," said Maria Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Aldurian Union of Teamsters.

Aldurian Logistics and Kerularios & Company have offered significant concessions in wage increases for employees in negotiations, but they are at an impasse at the reclassification of truck drivers. The previous contracts with both companies expired earlier this year, the first established after unionization. These contracts lasted two years. The union and the companies have been negotiating for a five-year agreement.

Sources with knowledge of the negotiations confirm that negotiations are tense, but that efforts are underway to strike another two-year contract instead.

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PUNTA SANTIAGO, ALDURIA -- The Aldurian economy slowed this 3rd quarter to 2.32%, from a year-on-year average GDP growth of 6.4% since the ratification of the Constitution, projections from the Bank of Alduria have shown. Phillip Heinault, senior economist at the Bank of Alduria, said that logistical bottlenecks, such as the limited inter-provincial highway and the lack of air, sea, and rail links are a major cause of this economic downturn.

"Production is keeping pace with the current technology," says Heinault, "...but it's the businesses not being able to get their goods to the markets that is slowing individual and collective business growth. Economic activity remains highly centralized at Punta Santiago thanks to its proximity to government regulators, an airport, and more importantly, to a seaport, but if you look at economic growth in the provinces, the farther you are from the capital, the more dismal the economic performance."

Not all is gloomy, however. Says Heinault: "Consumer confidence and spending remains high. Our M3 money supply is growing, but the inflation we're seeing, now hovering at 5%, is the result of too much money chasing too few goods. Trade with our Euran and nearby neighbors is helping pick up the difference in the lack of products, but the internal consumer demand remains high. People have money now. Investor confidence in Alduria also remains high - you can see this in the number of businesses being incorporated, the sustained drop in unemployment, the rise in office property as well as residential rental prices in the national capital, the increasing consumption and need for greater electricity supply." When asked if the Bank of Alduria intended to raise interest rates or increase bank deposit requirements, Heinault said that the matter was being carefully studied. Trained professionals, he said, are running out, with businesses practically in a bidding war in order to win over the best talent. The question on whether to allow in foreign workers or expatriate professionals and executives was a matter best left to Parliament, concluded Heinault.

Among the written recommendations issued by the Bank of Alduria to the Government are the institution of a one-stop-shop system with respect to government permits for businesses, computerization of local governments, an income tax holiday of 3-5 years for entrepreneurs and start-up businesses, greater access to loans and credits, expansion of the Postal Savings Bank network, technical training for prospective entrepreneurs, and the semi-privatization and provision for retail investor accounts in the nascent Punta Santiago Stock Exchange.

"Everyone wants to participate in the Aldurian economy, to make money, but some just don't know where to go and how to start," said Gustavus Van Halen, an Aldurian of Batavian descent, proprietor of a well-known jewelry shop located in the business district. Van Halen's is a good example of a solid Aldurian business, with humble beginnings as a pawnbroker, a business started by his father, now retired. Aside from the jewelry business, a sister company is now becoming a mid-sized auction house.

"It might do well for the different professional and trade interests to organize, I mean if the workers can do it, why can't we?" 

This thread will contain all the important announcements, rules, and FYIs for the upcoming Aldurian general election, which includes:

• Presidential elections;
  
• Parliamentary elections.