Highland Council Tourism Levy Consultation – Briefing Note
Background
- In December 2018, Highland Council committed to consulting residents, businesses and visitors on a potential transient visitor levy scheme.
- On 15thAugust 2019, the consultation was launchedat the Council’s Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee.
- As part of this process, Highland Council published a pre-consultation report to inform their consultation which summarises the main themes of the discussions held between Council officers and representatives of the tourism industry from May and June 2019.[1]
Tourism Levy Consultation
- Highland Council have not yet made a decision as to whether to support the introduction of a transient visitor levy.
- The Council’s rationale for considering TVL is that visitors to the region should contribute to the maintenance and development of free public services and infrastructure they use.
- The Council estimate that a Highland TVL could raise between £5-10m each year to help manage the impact of tourism and to invest in the Highland region.
- The consultation itself consists of two components: (a) an online questionnaire aimed at residents and tourism businesses (and visitors); and (b) targeted face-to-face questionnaires with visitors across the Highlands conducted by researchers from Glasgow Caledonian University.
Next Steps
- The consultation will run until 20thOctober 2019.
- The findings from the visitor survey, open consultation and research will be reported to Full Council on 12 December 2019, before being submitted to the Scottish Government.
Timeline
[1]Highland Council., Highland Transient Visitor Levy: Lessons from a Pre-Consultation with the tourism industry(2019). Url: http://www.highland.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/21027/tvl_pre-consultation_summary_report.pdf