Edinburgh tourist tax: Council leader joins street sweepers to mark start of Visitor Levy
‘This is such an important moment for our city’ - Cllr Jane Meagher
Edinburgh council leader Jane Meagher joined a street sweeping team in the Royal Mile to mark the arrival of the city's new tourist tax - the first in the UK - which will mean extra investment in cleaning the city centre.
The Visitor Levy - which comes into effect on Friday, July 24 - will add a five per cent fee to the cost of paid overnight accommodation, including hotels, guest houses, B&Bs, hostels, short term lets and campsites, for the first five nights of any stay.
The levy is projected to raise up to £50 million a year to invest in protecting, supporting and enhancing Edinburgh’s worldwide appeal as a place to visit and live.
Among the scheme’s numerous investment programmes is new funding of £100,000 per year to upgrade and replace litter bins in high footfall areas, £500,000 per year to expand work tackling graffiti through extra support for private businesses and £1.3m to increase cleansing operations in the city centre.
Several “early win” projects financed by the levy have already got under way - a £132,000 contribution towards Edinburgh’s Festival Carnival and Mardi Gras events, which took place last weekend; funding for 10 Festival City ambassadors to help visitors find their way around the Capital this summer; and a new City Centre Policing Unit to increase public safety in the city centre and free up frontline officers across other areas of the city.
Revenue from the Visitor Levy will also be used to pay for more public toilets, improving lighting and accessibility in Old Town closes, mending pavements, festive lighting and decorations and more wayfinding signage.
And there is investment too for affordable housing, as well as Portobello Prom, Cramond foreshore, Leith Theatre and the transformation of the Old Royal High School into a National Centre for Music.
Council leader Jane Meagher said: “This is such an important moment for our city – and for our residents and visitors. It’s the result of a huge amount of work over many, many years and I am proud to be the first local authority in the UK to push ahead with a city-wide visitor levy scheme. We now have a unique opportunity to invest more in the things that make our city so special.
“We know that the city’s popularity comes at a cost through the pressure it puts on our services and on the people who live and work here all year round. This small new contribution from overnight visitors will help improve the services and public spaces we all depend on, while better managing the effects of tourism and major events.”
And she said she was confident the levy would not deter visitors. "We've done a lot of research into other cities where there is a similar levy and that tells us this levy - it's a very modest levy compared to others - will not put people off from visiting the city. In fact, it will do the opposite because it will make the city an even better place for people to visit."
Roddy Smith, chief executive of Essential Edinburgh, which runs the city centre Business Improvement District, said businesses wanted to see the levy work.
He said: "The Visitor Levy is here. All the debates about the pros and cons of it have been had. The key thing from businesses' point of view is that the money that's collected needs to be used well and visibly and there has to be accountability for what is delivered.
"I think the issues will arise if residents and visitors don't see this money being used effectively with visible outcomes.
“We see our job as being a critical friend to this process and holding the council accountable for how they spend the money. The additional cleaning and the additional policing is a really good start, but it is a start."
Marc Crothall, chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, said there was still uncertainty over how visitors would respond to the levy.
"Will it lead to some choosing not to stay over in Edinburgh or to take shorter stays, or will it result in people still coming but spending less in the destination's restaurants, pubs, shops, attractions, and other local businesses? These are impacts we’ll be monitoring over the coming weeks and months, and we will be expecting authorities to do the same.”