Council leader refuses to rule out tourism tax introduction
Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter
A council leader has refused to rule out introducing the Welsh Government’s new tourist tax when the powers become available to councils.
The Senedd has passed legislation that will allow each local authority in Wales to introduce a tourist tax if it wishes in the form of an additional charge per person per night booking overnight accommodation from campsites to luxury hotels.
Newport City Council has already ruled out the charge while Monmouthshire County Council’s Labour leadership has said it has no plans to do so during the existing council term.
But Torfaen Borough Council leader Anthony Hunt would only say his council would follow the process, set out in the legislation approved by the Senedd in July, which requires a consultation before a charge is introduced.
Consultation process
If every council in Wales agreed to introduce the charge it’s estimated it could raise as much as £33m a year to invest in services and infrastructure to support tourism.
Independent councillor Nick Horler, who represents Blaenavon which is a World Heritage site recognised by United Nations cultural body UNESCO, asked Cllr Hunt if Torfaen would be introducing the tourist tax.
Cllr Horler said: “While the earliest it could potentially start is in April 2027 it would be good to understand Torfaen council’s position.”
Cllr Hunt replied: “Torfaen council will follow the process set out by the Welsh Government when the bill received royal assent. The first stage of that is to run a consultation process to get the views of the sector in Torfaen.”
The tax, officially known as a visitor levy, will introduce a £1.30 per visitor per night charge on overnight stays with the rate for hostels and campsites set at 75 pence per visitor, per night. There would be an exception for under 18s staying at hostels and campsites only.
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More than 20 countries around the world charge a tourism tax, some of which in Europe share a border. If this was having an adverse affect on visitor numbers, it would be scrapped. This is all about ‘how dare our colony behave as a country?’ and I’ll bet there will be a few hypocrites who refuse to come here on this basis and pay an air fare and blow even more money to go to a country which charges OH, A TOURIST TAX! £1.30 a night among hundreds being shelled out? Get over yourselves and your Empire mindset.
I don’t know what proportion of the ‘estimated’ £33m will be taken, but could well be less than the reduction in tourism caused by this PR disaster. Considering the money can will be spent elsewhere confirms that the senedd is anti tourist as well as anti business.
Yeah, nobody goes to Paris now, because they have a tourist tax which I think was doubled recently (or is about to be). Its a ghost town now…oh wait…
We were told twenty and the covid response were PR disasters but the numbers of cars parked inappropriately in areas of outstanding natural beauty are higher than ever. Truth is, the handful that are put off by driving slightly slower in other people’s communities or paying less than the price of a sausage roll for the enormous privilege of overnighting in Wales are likely to be the type that spoil things for everyone else, so it’s a win for everyone else. If the message gets out that Wales is only for nice people then the result is that more nice… Read more »
If the qualify of the product is worth seeing people arent going to be put off by tax in fact most would happily pay it to conserve the area.
This should not have been left to individual councils to decide, but should be applied to all councils. Otherwise there is too much scope for divide and rule tactics.
Either devolution is a good thing or it isn’t. The visitor economy in Cardiff is totally different to Powys so which market would you design a common system for?
It would pay for the public toilets clearing rubbish and general repairs.
The population of Wales in some area doubles in July and August.