{"id":21364,"date":"2019-01-18T16:34:12","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T16:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=21364"},"modified":"2019-01-18T16:34:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T16:34:12","slug":"bid-to-introduce-a-2-tourist-tax-in-edinburgh-wins-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=21364","title":{"rendered":"Bid to introduce a \u00a32 tourist tax in Edinburgh wins support"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-16564\" src=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Edinburgh-Skyline-courtesy-of-Fiona-Newton-e1504286862516.png\" alt=\"building roofs\" width=\"250\" height=\"158\" \/>Plans to introduce a \u00a32 tourist tax in Edinburgh have won support in a recent public consultation.<\/h3>\n<h6><em>image: Fiona Newton<\/em><\/h6>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The BBC writes:<\/p>\n<p>Some Scottish councils, led by Edinburgh, have called for powers to set levies on tourist accommodation. Figures show 85% of respondents to a City of Edinburgh Council survey backed the move, including more than half of accommodation providers.<\/p>\n<p>The Scottish government has said it will further consult on the issue. More than 2,500 residents and businesses responded to the council consultation on what it calls a Tourism Visitor Levy (TVL) of either 2% or \u00a32 per room per night. The results suggested 90% of residents are supportive of a tourist tax, while 51% of Edinburgh accommodation providers, who would have to enforce the proposal, also support it. Only 9% of all respondents were opposed to the visitor levy.<\/p>\n<p>City of Edinburgh Council leader Adam McVey, said: \u2018Once again we are finding that there is a huge swell of support for a tourist tax in Edinburgh with residents and all types of business backing a scheme that is fair, sustainable and one which would be reinvested into the ongoing success of our tourism and hospitality industry and the services which matter most to local people&#8230;\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2026 It is estimated the tax could raise between \u00a311.6m and \u00a314.6m per year in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n<p>Marc Crothall, of the Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA), said more transparency was required around the survey&#8217;s results, and questioned whether it was fair for the council to claim \u2018significant\u2019 support from Edinburgh accommodation providers, given that they made up only a small proportion of respondents. He said: \u2018The results of the recent tourism tax consultation is, in our view, ambiguous&#8230;\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2026 \u2018He added that the figures indicated that only 87 Edinburgh accommodation providers &#8211; less than 5% of all tourism businesses in Edinburgh &#8211; had said they strongly support plans for a tourist tax, and that it was unclear from the council figures what type of accommodation providers these are. Mr Crothall said: \u2018Greater transparency is required and we will be seeking clarity from Edinburgh city council to better understand the results of the surbey\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The Scottish government had been firmly against allowing councils to set a tourist tax but Nicola Sturgeon signalled a change in direction last year when she said there should be further consultation&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-46797446\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more&#8230;.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plans to introduce a \u00a32 tourist tax in Edinburgh have won support in a recent public consultation. image: Fiona Newton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21365,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21364\/revisions\/21365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}