WG are planning to allow local authorities to impose a tourism tax - a few quid levy placed on people who visit Wales and presumably stay overnight. They say it's to help pay for the impact of tourism. Some people are complaining saying it'll drive people away.
I can see the point - rural communities are being severely damaged by tourism - but on the other hand, the tourists already bring in loads of money anyway. If they simply levied a tax on accommodation providers they'd pass it onto their guests anyway, they'd have to.
Would you be put off visiting if your hotel invoice had 'Tourism tax: £2' on it?
No but I'd love to see how it's spent.
Infact I'd happily pay more tax if I could see value for money
Wouldn't give a monkey's personally.
Lots of European towns do this don't they? Sure I've had it in Spain and Portugal in the past?
Love Wales (well bits of it). Off there to supervise the mini-dwellers at a week of sailing in the summer. That'll be my fourth North Wales stay away trip in 3 years. £25 of tourist tax is less than a takeaway curry or pizza meal for the three of us.
There's a similar discussion going on around us - with the same pros and cons.
* What will happen to the extra tax? Will it actually go to help with local issues? What "impact" is it looking to resolve?
* Will the added cost put folk off coming?
* Why is is perfectly normal in other countries and yet such an issue in the UK?
There's so much tourism here that the local economy is struggling to keep up with demand - mainly due to a shortage of low-cost accommodation for the folk working in hotels, catering etc. Guess what - it got a lot worse since Brexit. If the extra tax was going onto workers wages so that they could afford accommodation, which might actually have to be built first, then I could maybe see the point. If it is going to be directed towards more tourist infrastructure then it's not only a total waste, it begins to destroy the very reason folk come here on holiday.
As long as they spend it on things like roads or bypasses to alleviate the traffic caused by people passing through on the M4 on their way to their hols. The people who live in these areas get all the inconveniences but none of the benefit the holidaymakers bring. Try heading West from , say, Bridgend on a Spring / summer Friday evening, especially if the weathers half decent. Absolute nightmare.
I have zero confidence this will be the case though.
Would like to see it introduced here on the Scottish Islands - tourism puts a massive strain on local, publically funded resources. Folks stock-up on the mainland in the supermarkets, rent a cottage from someone who lives elsewhere and we get left with their rubbish and 💩 Monies could be used to build aires for overnight campers with toilets and waste water disposal points, as well as funding rangers who help guide people in how not to trash the place, scare off the wildlife or burn down the forest.
At the end of the day it's just a way of topping up some heavily depleted/inadequate council coffers.
If they don't stick it on tourist tax it will be one of the few other areas they can control like car parking or they'll cut something else because inflation and Covid legacy of disrepair and central funding cuts mean the money they have doesn't go far enough to maintain, let alone enhance, the assets and services they are responsible for.
Plans for this in Manchester as well. A good move in my opinion.
Starts this weekend!
Balls, I'll get taxed for staying overnight in my home city as it's easier than getting a taxi home after a concert ! Oh well, if the money is used correctly, I'm not sure it will.
"rural communities are being severely damaged by tourism"
Living in rural Wales, without tourists there probably wouldn't be much in the way of rural community without them. Especially in this economy.
"At the end of the day it’s just a way of topping up some heavily depleted/inadequate council coffers"
This is the case. And the council'll just waste it on pap, like they always do.
Despite that - I'd potentially be for a 0.5% sales tax, administered every time you use your credit or debit card - if you've not got a welsh postcode then you pay it, if you do, you don't.
However, I remember when they started charging for parking in town centres. It was sold as a panacea, an income source that would transform things. But it didn't - and we all ended up paying for no reason. I suspect this would work out exactly the same.
Tourists are already paying money. We're all already paying taxes. Councils need to cut the awful crap they spend on and start professionalising.
Councils need to cut the awful crap they spend on and start professionalising
I know I'm wasting my breath here but councils are critically underfunded and it's because of Tories. The thing you think is awful crap might be important to someone else.
Saying stuff like that is lazy and quite damaging as everyone just regurgitates it rather than actually investigating what goes on.
Wales, Scotland, Cornwall all good.
MANCHESTER!?
Plans for this in Manchester as well. A good move in my opinion.
Funny. Tourists in Manchester 🙂 yeah right.
Lol.
<edit. WTAF,!
Starts this weekend!
What if I am not a tourist but stay rurally for work? 😉
Plans for this in Manchester as well. A good move in my opinion.
I'm gobsmacked they have tourists!
Last place on earth I'd think about visiting...
Councils need to cut the awful crap they spend on and start professionalising.
Have a look at their expenditure budgets and point out all the 'crap'....
@matt_outandabout Would this be in your local council's area or another council? I suspect making it free for those staying overnight in their own council area would be too costly to implement. If you're in another area then you're using the facilities and should contribute. If £2 a night is going to stop people visiting maybe they shouldn't be holidaying on such a tight budget. (Yes it sounds hard-nosed from a Boomer type but in my early life we didn't holiday more than once every 4 years when the kids were growing up due to funds being tight).
Would you be put off visiting if your hotel invoice had ‘Tourism tax: £2’ on it?
If that's an actual number and not something plucked from imagination then sure, why not.
So long as it's actually going to be used to address tourist impacts and not just to bolster knackered local budgets where really Central government need to stop neglecting regional funding...
@Sandwich - it was a dig at it being called 'tourist tax', rather than 'visitor tax'.
We regularly pay such tax at work when we are in Europe. Interestingly when we are in Slovakia the locals knew where some of the money was going - e.g. one place was keen to show us their new walking paths and cycle route.
Off camping for a race this weekend in not so sunny France, it's going to be a washout.
For three people the tourist tax total is the grand sum of...
Taxe de séjour €2.40
Taxe locale €0.24
€2 per person per night in the Dolomites last week. Happy to pay it; goes towards local services, including subsidising local buses in the valley we were staying in, according to the hotel owner.
I'd like to see it in the Highlands, providing HIE don't get to (mis)manage the funds and communities actually get a say in how the funds are used.
Who goes on holiday to Wales?
Last place on earth I’d think about visiting…
Laugh away… Manchester is the best city to visit in England, and has a bigger tourism industry than any other English city after the economic black hole that is London.
Who goes on holiday to Wales?
Dick.
I can imagine the people that wish to visit Manchester are as insufferable as the people who live there.
You mean young people, don’t you?
I also go to Wales most weekends, only 70 miles - bike heaven, road and MTB. We have a tin box there !
France have been doing it for years, most people don't know they are paying, and those that see it itemised on their quote or invoice don't pay it a moments notice.
Manchester is Ace
Having stayed there a few times when working away, it's quite diverse from a bored wander round the local pubs point of view.
It goes from something like £2.73 a pint and a bit scary as a southern stranger, bars on windows etc, to £6.00 a pint in what feels like safety in a five minute walk.
I can see the point – rural communities are being severely damaged by tourism – but on the other hand, the tourists already bring in loads of money anyway. If they simply levied a tax on accommodation providers they’d pass it onto their guests anyway, they’d have to.
Why not just implement the Chinese 70s style permit travel document between counties? Much easier to control pollution, damage to environment etc. Nobody can travel unless permit is granted.
Would you be put off visiting if your hotel invoice had ‘Tourism tax: £2’ on it?<
Of course not because the purpose of parasites is to suck out the nutrient from the host without causing any damage.
IMO it's the wrong fix for a problem, but that might still be the best option available to the local authorities since they don't have access to the right fix.
Mostly it's just corporatism doing its thing- once upon a time you'd say, it's good for the local economy, it creates jobs, it supports local businesses. But wages shrink, businesses get bigger, having X tourists cause the employment of Y number of bar staff, waiting staff, shop staff just isn't doing the work it used to, those Y staff have less spending power and they spend more of it online and in chain shops. So the localised part has been massively depleted, while the burdens on the local area are the same or worse. It's a model that was never brilliant but increasingly it just doesn't really work.
Add to that immediate negatives like houses going out of owner-occupation or long-term rents and into airbnbs, and all that entails... Like second homes but turbocharged.
Who goes on holiday to Wales?
Far fewer people than somewhere like say, Cornwall, which is one of the best things about it.
jambourgie
Free Member
Who goes on holiday to Wales?
Er, all our Mountaineering Club?
Me and the Mrs, once a month or so.
I love the fact that it has real mountains and doesn't attract the type of middle class tosser who demands a latte every 500 yards.
jamesoz
Full Member
Manchester is AceHaving stayed there a few times when working away, it’s quite diverse from a bored wander round the local pubs point of view.
It goes from something like £2.73 a pint and a bit scary as a southern stranger, bars on windows etc, to £6.00 a pint in what feels like safety in a five minute walk.
Yup.
Ironically, you're safer in the Hare And Hounds on Shudehill than you are in any five minute walk wine bar.
And definitely no bars on any windows in Manchester.
There was a fire once, it was horrific.
* Why is is perfectly normal in other countries and yet such an issue in the UK?
because we are used to paying fairly high taxes and seeing little in return due to constant central government failure?
If the welsh government can raise more revenue through taxing visitors that sounds like it could be helpful. It might offset the loss in support for some projects that Wales has suffered as a consequence of the U.K. leaving the EU.
To folks’ point, while it’ll add an overhead, it could increase enthusiasm for such a tax if projects it supported were marked as such: ‘tourism tax at work’
I had no idea about a Manchester tourist tax.
Neat! It might make up some of the funding shortfall from central government. There do seem to be a lot of visitors in town. I wonder how many venture out to Rochdale, Wigan, and other parts of the combined authority area.
@jamesoz where/when (21st century?) are you going out when you visit? Doesn’t sound like the city centre historic pubs (mentioned on other threads with many opinions if I remember correctly). But The Marble Arch? Peveril of the Peak? The Turk’s Head?. … Nor does that description sound like the western and southern outskirts.
Just before COVID was the last time I stayed. My colleague has a nose for pubs with 'charm' where you might get a lock in or a game of pool with money involved. Was surprised to get copper coins in my change.
Wasn't too much of a walk from the Art gallery/China Town. I think we walked along a canal. Hard to say, some beer was drunk.
We once ended up at a lock in at a pub in some lovely part of Bristol (complete with crackheads outside) as we were working lates. Tried to get a cab back to the digs, but apparently we were 'idiots and not even the Police go to that bit'.
Yes in favour of this and the second home tax. Would like to see all the money spent on cycle paths.
Who goes on holiday to Wales?
Me. Frequently. We’ve Got 2 weeks booked in Solva in June which, as you can see, is a hideous hell-hole…
The Pembrokeshire coast is absolutely stunningly beautiful. I’ll be taking the road bike and pootling about. And in answer to Mols question, I’d have no issue with a tourist tax
it could increase enthusiasm for such a tax if projects it supported were marked as such: ‘tourism tax at work’
Like these?
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We’ve just booked 10 days in a farmhouse in Gwynedd over the summer for a family holiday (6 adults) If it was £2 per person per night then that would be £120 less we would have to spend directly with local businesses.
No doubt most of the revenues generated will be spent on projects in South Wales, with only a pittance coming back to North Wales.
No probs with a tourist tax really. Part of the economy is tourism but that doesn't account for all of the impact it can have and the costs that go with it.
Who goes on holiday to Wales?
Me, bike touring once a year since 2020, some MTB holidays in the past. Us, we go camping there once a year. I love Wales (even more so when the sun's shining, ha). Holidays that don't involve airports and flying are so good.
Manchester's great too - couldn't live in a city these days but visiting was/is always good.
