Edinburgh cruise ship levy could raise up to £3 million, says council

The Scottish Government has just launched a public consultation on giving local authorities the power to introduce a cruise ship levy as a follow-up to the legislation allowing them to charge a visitor levy on overnight accommodation.

In January, Edinburgh became the first city in UK to approve a comprehensive visitor levy, which will come into effect from July 2026.

Cruise ship passengers could soon face a levy when they visit Edinburgh. Picture: Esme Allen.

The Scottish Government says it has no plans to introduce a nationwide cruise ship levy,but wants to hear a wide variety of voices on the idea of allowing a levy set at local level.

There were around 1,000 cruise ship visits to Scottish ports in 2024, bringing 1.2 million passengers – an increase of almost 400,000 compared with 2019. The areas that welcome the most cruise passengers are Invergordon, Orkney, Edinburgh, Lerwick, and Greenock.

Edinburgh councillors have already voted 47-9 to back a cruise ship levy in principle.

Council leader Jane Meagher said: "Public finances are under extreme pressure and this seems a reasonable and fair way of asking people who visit the city, in this case on cruise ships, to contribute to the city's development and support for the visitor experience."

A report to the council's policy and sustainability committee says there are four main ports for cruise ships in the Edinburgh and south-east Scotland - South Queensferry, Rosyth, Newhaven and Leith, with one or two a year going to Eyemouth.

In 2024, there were 142 cruise calls to South Queensferry, Rosyth, Newhaven, and Leith combined, with around 280,000 passengers. This included 27 calls at Leith, 52 at Newhaven, 27 at Rosyth and 36 at South Queensferry.

There are concerns that if local authorities decide individually on a cruise ship levy, cruise companies could simply opt to visit those with the lowest or no levy So the city council is already in talks with neighbouring authorities about a co-ordinated approach.

Orkney has proposed a flat rate £5 per head levy and Edinburgh says if that were adopted it could bring in just over £1m to Edinburgh and south-east Sotland as a region. For Edinburgh on its own, the forecast revenue would be around £540,000.

A levy similar to Lisbon's 2 euros per person - the low end of European cruise ship levies - could raise around £500,000 per year; Barcelona's 6 euros per passenger could raise around £1.5m; and Amsterdam's high end 14 euros per day could raise around £3m.

Cllr Meagher said: "The Scottish Government is responsible for drafting the legislation and we will be taking part in the consultation. I hope the Scottish Government will learn from our experience of implementing the visitor levy to avoid some of the chinks or creases in the drafting of the visitor levy legislation, so the whole question of VAT, for example, might well be addressed, but that's entirely up to the Scottish Government."

Because VAT is charged on the visitor levy, a 5 per cent levy becomes 6 per cent, increasing the bill for visitors. It has been argued that the levy should have been exempted from VAT and the council has voted to try to claw back the estimated £8m a year it will lose in VAT.

The Scottish Goverment consultation on a cruise ship levy closes on May 30.