Roland Perry wrote:
at 13:52:10 on Mon, 23 Jan 2012, Adam H. Kerman remarked:

Here in many (if not all) parts of Europe, the price that you pay for
something already has relevant taxes figured in.

Yet here in the United States, when prices for airline travel and hotel
rooms are stated, they included taxes. In Europe, travel prices are
more often stated without all taxes included.

Travel itself doesn't have any "sales tax",

It's a service tax, true.

although some airlines dress up various items like airport and security
fees as "tax and charges". But so do USA airlines.

That's a point. Sometimes there have been fuel surcharges. There are
often baggage surcharges.

Many hotels in tourist spots have a "surprise" city tourist/hotel tax,
but not in the UK.

That would be unheard of in the United States. Various places have plenty
of taxes on hotel charges, but these would be quoted up front.