(TAN): Scottish sustainable transport charity Transform Scotland has backed the government’s plan for a tourist tax after a survey showed residents were in favour of the Transient Visitor Levy (TVL).
The study, conducted on 320 residents earlier this year, highlighted that 93% of the people interviewed knew about the potential TVL of GBP 2 (USD 2.59 approximately) per person per night, which could raise between GBP 11.6 million and 14.6 million per year.
While 78% of the respondents thought the move could protect Edinburgh and help manage tourism, 42% wanted the council to invest the funds to improve the city’s infrastructure, green spaces, public toilets, and facilities for cyclists, monitor the growth of Airbnb properties, remove litter and graffiti, and fund extra policing to manage overcrowding during busy periods.
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According to the report, 69% of the people said they were frequently affected by tourism, while 87% said more could be done to manage tourism.
Director of Transform Scotland, Colin Howden said that “large tourist volumes” was severely impacting Scotland’s transport system.
“During Edinburgh’s festivals, our bus network now routinely grinds to a halt. So it’s clear that something needs to be done to tackle the impacts of tourism in Scotland. Our report takes forward the debate on the Edinburgh TVL proposal by presenting additional public opinion on how the revenue from the scheme should be invested. We believe that a significant proportion of the TVL revenue should be invested in improving the City Centre public realm and in supporting public transport services,” he added.
Poppy Marles, the author of the report said that TVL schemes were prevalent in 19 European countries, and that the report discusses such schemes in action in Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Florence and Geneva.
“In Edinburgh, there is now strong public support for The City of Edinburgh Council’s proposals, and we conclude that it is now imperative for the Scottish Government to swiftly come forward with legislation to enable Local Authorities to implement TVL schemes that are appropriate to the local circumstances across Scotland. We note that while Edinburgh has an overheated tourism sector, there are other parts of Scotland where a TVL may not be appropriate,” she added.
Some businesses, however, opposed the idea of TVL claiming that such a scheme would “cause the city’s visitor numbers to decrease”.
Marles said: “We are not persuaded by the hostility from the hospitality industry towards TVL proposals. We have seen no evidence that a TVL scheme in Edinburgh at a rate of 2.00 would impact on visitor numbers, and nor would we expect a charge less than the price of a coffee to have any impact on demand. In the report, we note that Florence has experienced further growth in visitor numbers since the introduction of a TVL scheme in 2011.”
