Money raised from a new levy could be used to bring major sporting events and big film productions to York and North Yorkshire.
That’s the belief of Mayor David Skaith, who says imposing a ‘tourist tax’ could help fund new attractions to lure people to the county all year round.
But he admits he will have to ‘sell’ the visitor levy to many in the hospitality industry who see it as a tax too far.
The government is set to grant mayors the power to implement a visitor levy. Mr Skaith, mayor for York and North Yorkshire, is already talking of adding a levy of £2 per night’s stay here, saying it would generate about £52 million a year.
“To put that into context, that’s four times our transport budget per year. We’re talking a huge amount of money,” he told YorkMix.
“So the opportunity is to not only invest in improved transport connectivity for visitors and locals alike, but to drive money into the tourism and hospitality sector, to attract more people here, to put York and North Yorkshire even on a bigger map than it already is.”
He believes some of the fund could go towards bringing new attractions to city and county.
“We’re always speaking with sporting events. We’re speaking with film and TV production who want to come and operate in our region, but it has to be paid for, and no one’s got the money to do that.
“We could raise some money to go and attract these sporting events, to go and attract more filming, more TV, which will bring visitors numbers into area, and bring that increased spend.
“We saw the amount of spend that was brought into York and North Yorkshire when we’ve had big cycle events over the years here.
“We could do those sort of things, but no one’s got the money to do it. So we have an opportunity to raise a small levy on overnight stays, to put loads more funding into attracting more people here, to increase that spread, to increase tourism.”
The Hospitality Association York (HAY), which represents many tourist-dependent businesses in the city, has expressed its “deep concern” over the proposals.
They said the levy would come on top of last year’s “catastrophic budget” which increased their costs, while room rates were going down in York.
HAY expressed disappointment that they hadn’t been consulted by the mayor, and feared any money raised would be used to fill councils’ funding gaps rather than being spent on the tourist experience.
In response Mr Skaith said the combined authority would be starting a process of consultation imminently.
“We have to work with them and show them the real positives. I absolutely understand the concerns, but we have to show the positive impact that this could have for not only the sector, but for people who live in our region as well.
“Everyone wants improved transport connectivity, for example, but it costs a lot of money. We have an opportunity to generate some money to support the sector and support local people who work in it.
“So I have to sell it to them what these positives are, but I want them involved in that consultation and feeding that information into me so we know where we are.”
He said if all went to plan the levy could be introduced in a year to 15 months’ time.
If it all went right, “we could potentially have a pipeline of the next 10 or 15 years of events, of attractions, of filming, of TV, of everything coming into York and North Yorkshire that will then support businesses.
“We’re starting to work on that now. Speaking to people like British Cycling, for example, who are really keen to come and do an event in York and North Yorkshire, but they’re keen to do it for two years in a row, so we could commit to them for two years.”
