Wales Enforcing a Tourist Tax, Some Agree and Some Disagree
The Welsh Government is introducing a tourist tax in 2027 to help fund tourism-related infrastructure. Though not all parts of Wales have agreed to this, most have, but with different amounts of tax money.
Wales isn’t the first country to have tourist taxes. Known officially as a visitor levy, it is fairly common in Europe, with many other countries like the Netherlands, France, Italy, etc. The idea of tourist taxes is to first of all, to build tourist sites and services. For places that are very popular with tourists, the taxes also help reduce the number of visitors.
Each of the 22 main councils of Wales will decide for their own area if they want to enforce the tax or not, and if so how much.
According to the plans, if the tourists are staying at a hostel or campsite, they will be paying 0.75 £ per person every night. However, there is an exception for children under 18 staying there, who can stay for free.Though for hotels and holiday homes, the fee is almost two times higher, at £1.3 per night.
Mark Drakeford, Wales’ finance secretary, believes that the tourist tax is a very good idea. “We believe it is reasonable for visitors to contribute towards infrastructure and services integral to their experience, as they do in so many other parts of the world,” Mr. Drakeford had said.
But where there is a side that agrees, there will always be a side that disagrees. Welsh Conservative politician, Sam Rowlands, is not so keen on the idea, convinced that it will impact jobs and the economy. “We believe it is bad for Wales and bad for the Welsh tourism sector which forms such an important part of the Welsh economy,” Mr. Rowlands explained. “We”, in this case, refers to the Welsh Conservative.
And though not everyone agrees with this, the Welsh government will soon be enforcing a visitor levy in some places. Protests have even been going on, with people complaining that the tourist economy is doing badly enough without the tax. Will the levy cause harm or do good?
