Salem increases fees for tour guide licenses as much as 3,500%

SALEM - With tourism booming - especially around Halloween - the city of Salem will be charging tour guides 3,500% more for a tour guide license in 2025. The fee will jump from $10 to a maximum of $350 on fee schedule that depends on how many people a tour guide is leading.

What is the new fee schedule?

City officials said the walking tours that operate in Salem often disrupt daily life for residents.

"The fee, I think, had gone unchanged and uninvestigated for far too long," said Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo. "So we heard feedback from the industry that they wanted more enforcement."

The city also passed a regulation that gives tour guides a discount on the licensing fee if they don't use amplified speakers during the tours. Guides whose groups are 10 people or less will pay $150 for a license. Guides who take less than 30 people will pay $250.

Why an increase in fees?

Pangallo told the city council at a meeting in May that community feedback asked for improvement in enforcement of tour groups, particularly around the city's Haunted Happenings around Halloween. He said the Fiscal Year 2025 budget includes additional police enforcement for these tour groups. The cost will be offset by the increase in tour guide licensing fees.

Pangallo also told the City Council that tour groups stopping on sidewalks also block the sidewalks to foot traffic and the city's code prohibits the blocking of sidewalks.

To handle traffic to the city during October, Salem has encouraged tourists to take public transportation and run a city shuttle to bring tourists into the downtown.