All of Scotland will soon get a tourist tax

Travelling is wonderful, but it’s not all beachside cocktails and late-night hostel raves. Travelling requires you to be conscientious of the communities you are exploring, but unfortunately, not everyone really seems to get this.

Tourist taxes aim to put money generated by visitors to a given city back into the community, thereby improving the local area long after guests have passed by. They’re becoming more common across the UK; after the success of Manchester’s £1 per night per hotel room visitor charge last year, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole all recently decided to trial the tax, and they could soon be joined by the entire nation of Scotland.

Originally proposed by the Scottish Greens, Scotland’s new policy will ‘allow a visitor levy, a type of fee or tax, to be charged on overnight stays in some types of accommodation’. The affected accommodations would primarily be hotels and B&Bs.

Ariane Burgess, MSP for the Highlands and Islands, described the move as ‘a small charge on individuals, but it will deliver a huge funding boost for Scotland’s local heroes up and down the country.

‘For the first time it will empower local councils to make spending decisions on key areas of need in their regions, especially for the likes of affordable homes and regeneration work to support workers and communities.’

So what exactly will Scotland’s levy look like? Exact numbers will change between authorities, but a small percentage of the cost of a night’s stay will be added to your bill. If, for instance, your hotel room costs £200 a night and the council had set the levy charge to 1 percent, you would pay an extra £2 per night. Some locales may also decide not to introduce a fee at all.

It’s unlikely this will actually come into play for another couple of years yet, so your summer escape to the Highlands is safe for this year. We’ll keep you updated when it does eventually come into effect, or if any other cities end up introducing something similar in the meantime. 

Keeping up with the Scotsmen 

We at Time Out like to keep an eye on the best stories from across the UK, which includes our friends north of the border. Did you see that Glasgow might become the first city in Britain to offer free public transport? Or that Taylor Swift is heading to Edinburgh next week? We’ve also got Time Out guides to both Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as Aberdeen, Inverness, and the Highlands. 

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