Latest news with #visitorlevy
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Plans for £35m Edinburgh George Street revamp backed
Plans for a major redevelopment of one of the Edinburgh New Town's main streets have been backed by city councillors, despite fears over a lack of estimated £35m revamp of George Street will see parking down the centre of the street removed, a new cycle lane and traffic restrictions council hopes money for the project will come from the new visitor levy and through Scottish government and Transport Scotland funding concerns have been raised about the current financial situation and how likely it will be to secure all the money for the project. If funding is found, construction is scheduled to start after the Edinburgh Festival in 2027 with a completion date of August or September a meeting on Thursday, councillors voted six to five in favour of backing the most expansive – and expensive - approved George Street revamp will include more space for pedestrians, seating areas, trees and raised access will be restricted at certain times to just taxis and delivery vehicles, with "hostile vehicle mitigation" bollards controlling access at entry points. Most expansive and expensive plan Opposition councillors expressed concern over the scheme's practicality, instead calling for £10m to be spent on properly maintaining the existing street council officers said this would not meet the city's street design guidelines and would not qualify for funding from public bodies. Conservative councillor for the City Centre ward Joanna Mowat said: "We've been talking for nearly 11 years now."The elephant in the room is that we still don't have any money, and are reliant on applying to third parties and having this money granted to us before we can put a shovel in the ground."Two lesser options, costing £13m and £20m, which would cut out certain elements of the full scheme, were also proposed but voted council said that if adequate funding for the project cannot be found, councillors will be able to scale back to one of these less ambitious and Environment Committee convener Stephen Jenkinson said: "This is a unique opportunity to bring one of Edinburgh's most important streets into the modern world whilst still maintaining its unique history and features."The wider potential improvements are vast, from benefits to local residents and businesses to enhancing Edinburgh as a visitor destination, and beyond."
BBC News
3 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Aberdeenshire Council seeks views on 'tourist tax'
Residents and businesses in Aberdeenshire are to be asked for their views on the introduction of a tourist tax in the region. Councillors in Edinburgh and Glasgow have already agreed a future 5% visitor levy on Council has now launched a survey to gather initial opinions from local people including accommodation three-week research will be followed by a "more detailed consultation process" later in the year. Tourism supports thousands of jobs in Aberdeenshire and is worth hundreds of millions of pounds to the local council has not suggested a rate for any visitor levy at this stage. Among the questions posed by the survey are: What would be a suitable rate for the levy?How many months of the year should it be in place?What should the money raised be spent on? What is tourist tax used for? Alan Turner, chairman of the council's infrastructure services committee, said: "It is essential that we fully understand both the impact and the opportunities that a visitor levy may bring and that is why our initial engagement with the sector and our communities is so important."I do want to stress that no decisions have yet been made and that this process is about listening, learning and exploring what would work best for Aberdeenshire."The visitor levy could be used to reinvest in local infrastructure, services and charge is similar to schemes already used in Germany, Spain and Italy.
The Independent
21-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Tourist taxes: be careful what you wish for, because holidaymakers have choices too
In these divided times, seeing multi-party agreement is uplifting. The setting: Glasgow city administration committee on Thursday 19 June. SNP, Labour, Conservatives and Greens joined in voting in favour of the city's visitor levy. From January 2027, people staying in hotels and all other commercial accommodation in Glasgow will pay 5 per cent on top of the bill. Each year, tourists and business travellers will provide £16m for the council to spend on civic improvements and promoting Glasgow. Edinburgh has already decided to charge overnight guests 5 per cent on top of the room rate, starting in July next year. Good to see the two big Scottish cities agreeing on something, too. Back in Glasgow, Ricky Bell of the SNP said there was 'no evidence to suggest that the introduction of a levy would be detrimental to the city'. Free money, then. And (almost) nobody who lives and votes in Glasgow will pay it. What's not to like? A load of locations across Europe and the wider world already have similar tourist taxes. Paris and Rome hardly seem short of tourists, so Mr Bell is surely right: a levy will not deter visitors. At the risk of disrupting such rare unity, I beg to differ. A couple staying in a three-star hotel in the French capital pay £9.50 per night in Paris tourist tax. I shall assume the room itself costs £110, which is what I have been seeing apart from during the Olympics slump last summer. With accommodation tax at 10 per cent in France, the pair will pay just short of 20 per cent in levies – which corresponds to the current rate of VAT in Scotland and the rest of the UK. With their new 5 per cent charge, Edinburgh and Glasgow will leap ahead in the proportion they extract from tourists. By next summer, the 'stealth' visitor tax on foreigners known as air passenger duty will extract £15 for European flights and £102 for North American visitors. It all adds up. Edinburgh and Glasgow are great cities, and share freely with visitors their immense cultural wealth in the shape of world-class museums and galleries. The assumption is that tourist demand is inelastic – the city councils can put on taxes without dampening the desire to visit. I am not so sure. If it were the case, why stop at 5 per cent – let's try 10, or 20? The UK already looks unwelcoming, with a £16 admission fee in the shape of the Electronic Travel Authorisation and a refusal to accept perfectly secure European Union identity cards – disenfranchising around 300 million EU citizens who don't have passports. Edinburgh is a special case. The capital is a huge tourism draw, home to the industry of government and a key business hub. But Glasgow does not enjoy such fortune. If accommodation looks too pricey, visitors from northern England may switch to day trips; other tourists will stay at properties beyond the city's boundaries and the reach of the levy. Either way, the entire spend at a Glasgow property is lost. Another unintended consequence could be that visitors switch to cheaper, characterless budget hotels rather than independent enterprises. Imposing a flat levy across the year looks odd, too. To stretch the season and persuade people to visit off-peak, it would be smarter to have a 15 per cent tax for the four months from the start of June to the end of September, falling to zero for the rest of the year. Fees for visitors are worthwhile if they are substantial and change behaviour The shrewdest tourism tax I have seen in a long while is the brand-new €20 (£17) charge for each passenger arriving on a cruise ship to the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini from July to September. Cruise firms are understandably cross that it has been introduced so late in the day. As Paul Ludlow, president of Carnival UK, told me: 'When things are sprung on us late, it's not the way in which we'd like to work.' The principle, though, is sound: 'We really don't need thousands more people arriving for the day and contributing little to the islands' economies, so the least we can do is extract €50,000 from the average ship.' I support every city, region and nation making choices about taxes and tourism. But every tourist has choice, too.
The Independent
21-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
‘This is not Edinburgh': South Ayrshire council set to abandon plans for visitor levy after pushback
A local Scottish council is set to abandon its plans to introduce a tourist tax despite other towns and cities jumping at the chance to put a levy on visitors. South Ayrshire Council, covering an area of western Scotland under Glasgow, is likely to drop plans to introduce a visitor levy after negative feedback at a public consultation. The local authority proposed the plans to implement a visitor levy in the area on overnight stays to try and boost the economy. Accommodation providers, groups representing tourism businesses and residents were asked to give their feedback during the 12-week consultation. The plans received criticism from the public, with only 15 per cent of respondents supporting the proposal compared to 79 per cent against it. The negativity towards the levy largely focused on doubts that Ayrshire was a popular enough location for the levy to work. The area attracts people to its miles of stunning coastline, backed by a series of world-renowned golf courses, including the Trump-owned Turnberry course, and is home to attractions such as the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, which celebrates the life of Scotland's national poet. One respondent said: 'I don't believe that Ayrshire is attractive enough as a destination to warrant a tourist tax /levy. 'I can see how this works in very popular places like Barcelona or Athens. If this was inevitable, I would look to delay it until [the] surrounding areas have introduced the tax.' Another person said that the levy could even deter tourists from visiting the area. 'I think we need to encourage visitors rather than penalise them… This is not Edinburgh, where they have huge numbers of visitors... we need to make things more attractive to visitors and this sends completely the wrong message,' they said. Meanwhile, the minority who support the tourist tax said that they hope it will 'generate income for the area and hopefully keep council tax lower for residents'. It has been recommended that the plan be abandoned for two years, with the council agreeing with this during a meeting on Tuesday. Other councillors have 48 hours to object to this decision before it is finalised. The local council says that the visitor economy is highly important to South Ayrshire and supports thousands of jobs in the area. It said it wanted to investigate the visitor levy as an option to support services and infrastructure for both residents and tourists to enjoy. It said it could raise £400,000 to £500,000 per year based on a five per cent visitor levy charge after administration costs are accounted for. The visitor levy is not completely off the table for Ayrshire, but it will not be prioritised by the council until August 2027, when it will be reconsidered. The Visitor Levy Act became law in September 2024, which allows councils in Scotland to tax overnight accommodation if they wish to do so. The Highland Council and Glasgow City Council have established consultations on visitor levies in their area, while Edinburgh spearheaded the tax in January, when it voted to introduce a five per cent surcharge on overnight stays in the city.
BBC News
20-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Glasgow gives go-ahead for 'tourist tax' on visitors
Visitors to Glasgow will be charged an average of £4.83 per night extra for accommodation after councillors approved a new "tourist tax" for the visitor levy, which is due to come into force in January 2027, will charge 5% on overnight stays. It comes after Edinburgh councillors approved a similar charge in January and will cover hotels, hostels, guest houses, B&Bs and self-catering local authority hopes to raise around £16m per year via the tax, which it says will go towards infrastructure improvements and events in the city. Where is a tourist tax charged? Several other regions in Scotland are looking at similar plans, with proposals from Highland and Argyll and Bute week Comhairle nan Eilean Siar paused plans to introduce a similar visitor levy, following strong public opposition and Ayrshire Council also abandoned plans for a tourist tax in the region, as only 15% of respondents in a public consultation supported the proposal compared to 79% accommodation providers would be liable for the levy and required to submit quarterly reports - with potential penalties for non-compliant organisations. Businesses would retain 1.5% of the funds collected to cover their own by Sarah Hilley at the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
