You can get The National's Real Scottish Politics newsletter free and direct to your inbox every weekday. To sign up, click HERE and click the + button.
AS the Edinburgh Fringe begins, negativity has begun to creep in around the new tourist tax in Scotland’s capital.
William Burdett Coutts, founder of Assembly, told The Scotsman there needs to be a "turn in direction" in how visitor levy funds are distributed adding the Fringe venue has had to pay £60,000 towards the tax this summer.
Nicola Benedetti has also said the levy is costing Edinburgh International Festival £50,000 a year.
But speaking to The National, Kat Brogan – managing director of Mercat Tours and a member of the visitor levy advisory board – said people need to give the policy more time to work at the same time as scrutinising its application.
She also highlighted that while it has only applied to bookings made from the middle of July, it has been paid by visitors who have made advance bookings since last November and there has not been a decline in feedback.
“Any visitor levy which is well established and well known around the world is about investing in the destination,” she said.
“It’s about improving the destination for visitors, which in turn will improve it for workers and for residents as well.
“Visitors have actually been paying it since November. There hasn’t been any report of a decline or feedback or impact negatively since it went live.
“We do need to give it time to work and that’s over to the council, and they do have to make it work. There is an appropriate amount of scrutiny as to the strategic plan for the visitor levy because it does have to benefit the visitors, which in turn benefits workers and residents. They need to be transparent and they need to be fast in making sure the impact is there.”
The visitor levy, which came into effect last month, will see those staying overnight in hotels, bed and breakfasts and self-catering accommodation, charged an additional 5% on top of their original booking cost.
It aims to raise about £50 million annually and could be used to fund improvements to the capital, including new housing, cultural initiatives and a wider police presence.
The tax will be collected by accommodation providers and passed to the city council. The levy is only paid by people who stay overnight in the city.
It is capped at five nights, so those booking for the whole month of August, for example, will not face a 5% cost on every night of their stay.
This week it was reported a new Edinburgh city centre policing unit funded by the visitor levy had made almost 50 arrests in its first month with 114 charges applied for a range of offences.
Brogan said: “I can speak from personal experience here because an area of particular focus [for the unit] is Hunter Square. We work on Blair Street, which is just off Hunter Square, so our team walk through it daily and we bring groups of visitors through there.
“We’ve got real experience of the issues there and it’s a community that are well established but can be disruptive and threatening, so we are already seeing a positive impact and that would be just one example of it.”
Asked to respond to Coutts and some of the criticism of the tax, she added: “It has to be monitored, and the city has to benefit and the festivals are part of that. They’re a powerful example of why Edinburgh is the remarkable destination it is, so the festivals should see investment from the visitor levy.
“The mechanism is really important by which the visitor levy is collected and then the decisions on how it is spent, that mechanism is the bit that really matters. The council must be transparent and fair in who gets the funding.”
The rate of the visitor levy does not go up or down depending on the time of year.
Exemptions are applied in certain circumstances, including for those presenting as homeless and housed in emergency accommodation, those at risk of domestic abuse or other forms of violence and those who have to be temporarily rehoused due to poor living conditions.
Asylum seekers and refugees are also exempt, as are some of those who receive disability benefits.
All of those covered by the exemption will pay the levy initially but can claim it back at a later date.
You can get The National's Real Scottish Politics newsletter free and direct to your inbox every weekday. To sign up, click HERE and click the + button.
