Hotels, short-term lets and campsites in Edinburgh will start charging a visitor levy on all overnight stays in May, in a phased introduction to the scheme.
The levy, the first mandatory city-wide scheme in the UK, will be payable on all stays from July next year that are booked from 1 May onwards.
The charge, described as a tourist tax, is expected to raise up to £50m a year to tackle the heavy impact of mass tourism on the city, by investing in new social housing, public parks, tourism facilities and arts and cultural events.
City officials recommended the long lead-in time to ensure visitors know at an early stage that they will pay the 5% plus VAT surcharge on all stays from 24 July 2026, and hotels and booking portals advertise the charge properly in advance.
Councillors are expected to finally vote through the scheme on Friday, more than six years after the city formally began work on it.
Jane Meagher, the council leader, said: “This is the moment we have been working towards, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sustain and enhance Edinburgh’s position as one of the most beautiful, enjoyable destinations in the world.
“The funding could provide Edinburgh with the biggest single injection of new funding this side of the millennium.”
Smaller-scale and voluntary visitor levies, which do not involve all types of accommodation provider, are in force in several English cities, including Manchester and Liverpool.
Manchester’s scheme, which involves a £1 a night surcharge on rooms in 74 hotels and serviced apartments in its city centre business investment district, and part of Salford, raised £2.8m in its first year.
Edinburgh’s scheme is the first to cover every kind of accommodation, from campsites and hostels through to Airbnb properties, aparthotels and hotels, using Scotland-wide legislation that came into force last year. At least 4,000 providers will be affected.
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The Welsh government is following the Scottish parliament’s lead by tabling new powers for councils to levy a visitor charge, expected to be a fixed fee of 75p per night for campsites and hostels, and £1.25 for all other accommodation.
A survey by the Guardian in November found that nearly half of Scotland’s 32 councils are either investigating a visitor levy or are considering it, including Highland council, which has wrestled with a surge in overtourism at hotspots on Skye, as well as Orkney and Shetland councils.
The traveller’s guide Fodor’s blacklisted the North Coast 500 driving circuit, which takes motorists on a 516-mile circular route up the west coast and through the Highlands, due to its “untenable popularity”.
Campaigners in the Lake District have also called for a visitor levy, to help meet the costs of catering for 18 million visitors a year.
The Edinburgh scheme has been revised slightly after a consultation with businesses, residents, tourists and cultural organisations, which found continuing resistance from many businesses and visitors, particularly to the proposed rate of 5%. Some argued it should be lower or a fixed rate.
The levy will only be applied to the first five days of any stay, rather than seven days as originally planned, after lobbying from the city’s festivals, which argued that it penalised the thousands of people who have seasonal jobs in the events.
The council will be issuing guidance to all the businesses affected by the levy telling them the fee can be collected in cash or by card, after a visitor in Manchester alleged she had been kicked out of a hotel because she would only pay its visitor levy in cash.
Article by:Source Severin Carrell Scotland editor
