FRESH concerns have been raised about the economic impacts of a potential tourism tax on businesses in North Yorkshire.
Bosses at North Yorkshire Council have said that problems could arise “particularly for businesses on the coast” from the possible introduction of an overnight visitor levy in York and North Yorkshire.
David Skaith, the elected mayor of York and North Yorkshire, has suggested that a “modest levy” on the region’s 41 million annual visitors could raise £50 million to “turbocharge investment”, but hoteliers have expressed “deep concern” about its potential impact on businesses.
Speaking at a meeting on Tuesday, August 18, Cllr Mark Crane, executive member for open to business, said: “I wanted to mention tourism and how well we are doing. We’ve had visits from national bodies, who have been impressed by what we’re doing, and we are seeing an increase in visitors to the county.
“Let’s hope that continues even if the mayor decided to start charging them more”.
Coun Mark Crane. Nyc
A report presented at Tuesday’s meeting found that hotel occupancy in the county was “down a few points on last year” but had remained stable.
As well as highlighting cost of living pressures on households, officers said: “There may be some wider considerations in this, such as the fact that the Easter holiday occurred early this year and this may have deterred people from travelling as the weather remained poor at that point”.
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Conservative councillor David Staveley raised the hotel revenue and occupancy data in the report and highlighted the “cost of living impact that has been felt across the economy as well as the impacts of a possible tourism tax”.
He queried whether “any mapping has been done if visitor numbers decline as a result of a tourism tax and cost of living impacts”.
Cllr Crane said that North Yorkshire Council is currently working on an “updated suite of measures for tourism which I think you’ll find helpful”.
He added: “I think this council has been quite clear that introducing a tourism tax could be a problem for North Yorkshire and particularly for businesses on the coast. Now that we have a new prime minister, a tourism tax looks more likely.
“Then we would want to work with the mayor to see how that money can be best spent to help businesses in the tourism industry. We are hoping it doesn’t make a big impact on tourism in the county, and in fact this year we have seen improvements in some places in the number of visitors.
“We will continue to monitor that and what we might do if visitor numbers fall and how to alleviate that.”
He noted that in addition to trying to increase the number of visitors to the county, the council was working towards seeing tourists staying for longer periods of time.
“We are very aware of the possible problems [with the tourism tax],” he added.
Mayor Skaith has emphasised that he will “work with local authorities, businesses, and the tourism sector as a whole, to really bring them all on the journey together and actually work out what we want to see from such a levy, how it’d work, how it’d be collected”.