A BLISTERING war of words has broken out between Edinburgh City Council and opponents of the £2 per room, per night tourist tax that the capital’s local authority wants to introduce.
Industry umbrella body the Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) has cast doubt on the local authority’s claims to have consulted “industry stakeholders” over the so-called transient visitor levy (TVL). The council is due to begin a public consultation on the issue.
The STA said it was “disappointed that Edinburgh City Council has proceeded to launch a consultation on its plans to charge a tourist tax of £2 per room, per night, having had no formal or meaningful engagement with Scotland’s tourism industry to date.”
Edinburgh Council sources said the STA had been represented at a number of informal round-table discussions which have resulted in the proposed consultation exercise. If it gets a positive result, the council would ask the Scottish Parliament to pass the necessary laws for the TVL.
Council leader Adam McVey said: “Our work over the summer has focused on key stakeholders, particularly those in the hospitality trade, and we are continuing to engage with them on the details of what an Edinburgh scheme could reasonably look like and options for implementing it.”
The STA said: “The Scottish Government has been consistent in its position that it has no plans for a tax on tourists and that the interests of the hospitality and tourism industry must be fully taken into account through consultation.
“The STA has requested that a formal stakeholder consultation takes place at national level, initiated by the Scottish Government. We reiterated our request at a recent meeting with Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, and again by letter to the Cabinet Secretary this week.
“The time has come for an objective, well-informed national, rather than local debate following the conduct of independent research.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are not willing to consider requests to explore a possible tourist tax unless the tourism and hospitality industry are involved from the outset and their long-term interests are fully recognised.
“We continue to deliver a fair deal to councils across Scotland, with revenue and capital funding increasing in real terms over the next financial year.”
The spokesman added:”In partnership with Cosla, our Local Governance Review is now engaging widely on strengthening local decision-making and how public services work together to drive growth – and where we would welcome further discussion about revenue raising powers.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel