Should England be charging a tourism tax?

Supporters tend to call it a “visitor levy”. Detractors prefer to call it a “tourist tax”.

Whether you agree with it or not, an extra charge for overnight stays has become a common feature of modern travel. Recent visitors to New York, Prague, Milan and Edinburgh will have already paid it. And now mayors in England will have the chance to impose it.

Some think these fees will cause huge damage to the hospitality sector, while adding to the general cost of living for visitors. But the main argument in favour of the charge is that it is a simple way of raising much-needed revenue.

A report I worked on for the Welsh government showed that a well-implemented visitor levy can indeed have a positive effect on the tourism industry.

Looking at destinations in Italy, Iceland, Spain and the US, the evidence suggested that a tourism tax can bring benefits to the local community while also improving sustainability, by funding environmental projects, for example.

But getting it implemented turns out to be far from simple. There are key elements which have to be decided upon, and different places – big cities and coastal towns, for example – need different approaches.

One reason for this is how tightly tourism is woven together as an economic system. Nobody in that...

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