If you want to visit my city and see its sights, you can "kick back" into the damn kitty that it takes to keep those sights maintained.
If there's one thing I've learned in my old age, it's that I love buying things for people. Because then the power dynamic is in my favor: this is my city, enjoy your visit but leave no trace.
Some tourists would prefer to support the town they're visiting by directly paying shop owners, etc, instead of having "hotel taxes" of indeterminate destination tacked onto their expenses.
(But you're right, using "kickback" was needlessly offensive.)