Edinburgh council still eager to go ahead with the tourist tax

COUNCIL leaders are keen to press ahead with the tourist tax as soon as possible despite claims it could put visitors off just as the city needs to bring them back.

Edinburgh has agreed plans for a £2 per room per night levy which would apply to all paid accommodation apart from campsites and raise an estimated £14.6m a year.

The SNP Scottish Government agreed as part of a budget deal with the Greens to give councils the power to introduce a tourist tax.

But at the start of the Covid crisis, it announced the necessary legislation was being paused.

At the Edinburgh World Heritage online discussion on building a better city, the panel were asked for their views on the tax.

Lothians Tory MSP and former city councillor Jeremy Balfour was keen to see it put on the back burner.

He said: “We need to give our hotels, restaurants and our tourist trade as much help as we can.

“I understand it’s done in other countries in Europe, but I think to introduce it at this stage would just not be the right time.

“We need to get our tourists back into the city and let’s not put them off in any way at all.”

But council leader Adam McVey defended the proposals.

He said: “I don’t see the need to delay it at all.

“Had we had the tourist tax in place already - and I’ve spent three years pulling together a very robust business case of why the tourist tax makes sense for our capital city - we would have had a funding stream that already existed to fund the recovery of the hospitality sector.

“This is not an anti-tourism thing, this is about sustainable tourism and giving us a revenue stream to support the industry and make the balance a bit better between residents and tourists, which is ultimately to the long-term, benefit of the industry as well.”