Tourism tax 'dangers' warning from Highland business leader

ANY additional tax on tourists could “kill the golden goose” of the Highlands’ thriving hospitality sector.

The warning comes from Inverness Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stewart Nicol in a response to a Scottish Government consultation on a proposed transient visitor levy. This would impose an additional charge on visitors during their stay in Scotland.

“The tourism sector is already facing unprecedented challenges with recruitment and the retention of skilled staff. In the Highlands, this has been a real challenge for many years and has been critically exacerbated by Brexit,” he writes.

“We have a real concern that there is a danger of ‘killing the goose’ with this proposed levy. The sector has been under some significant and well documented cost challenges in recent years, particularly around business rates.

“Regardless of how the levy is framed, this would act as a further unwelcome tax on this hard-pressed sector.”

Mr Nicol also questions the validity of surveys which suggested significant support for a tourism levy.

“The responses from frontline businesses operating in the sector are firmly against such a levy,” he continues.

Comparisons with other countries which already employ a tourism levy are unfair, he suggests, as overall taxation or rate charges are fundamentally different and much lower than in Scotland and if implemented, would add to an already burdensome tax structure,” he states.

Other concerns included whether local authorities would actually use the money raised for purely tourism related investment, and the impact of the levy on business travellers from or to the Highlands.

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