The council would like to thank everyone who gave views that will help develop a draft visitor levy scheme for ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute which, if approved for consultation by Council in December, will go out for public consultation in January 2025.
A pre-consultation survey followed a decision by councillors in August 2024 to explore the Scottish Government's visitor levy legislation. This legislation allows local authorities across Scotland to introduce a charge on overnight stays in hotels and other short-term accommodations, to raise funds to support and sustain local services and infrastructure for the visitor economy and residents.
The pre-consultation in October received over 1,200 responses. The council will now use these findings, and feedback from briefings with local tourism representatives, to develop a draft Visitor Levy Scheme for the area. The draft scheme will go to a special council meeting on 20 December 2024 and, if approved for consultation, the council will invite people to give their views on it over 12 weeks from January to March 2025.
Council Leader, Councillor Jim Lynch, said: “Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the pre-consultation. Tourism plays a vital role in ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute’s economy so, like many other Scottish local authorities, we are exploring the possibility of introducing a visitor levy to support the future of tourism in ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute.
“With shrinking public sector budgets and growing tourism pressures, we need to look at different ways to help raise income locally, to support public services used by tourism, and make improvements to the future delivery of tourism across ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute. Visitor levy schemes have been successful in many other areas in achieving this, so we must take the opportunity to consider a levy’s potential role in supporting and sustaining tourism locally.â€
Visit the council website for more information.