Visitors to Wales could find they need to pay a tourist tax on top of their travel and accommodation costs if a new proposal from Welsh lawmakers is approved.
The fee would amount to £1.25 (around €1.50) per night for guests in hotels, bed & breakfasts, and self-catering accommodation, while those staying in lower-budget options such as hostels or campsites would pay an additional 75 pence per night (approx. 90 euro cents). Stays beyond 31 nights in duration would not be charged, and neither would anyone being housed in a hotel or hostel due to homelessness.
Individual councils will decide
Dependent on a bill being passed in the 60-member Senedd Cymru (the devolved Welsh parliament in Cardiff), the earliest the levy could be implemented would be from 2027, but even then individual councils across Wales would be at liberty to decide whether or not to action it. They could also choose to charge a higher fee in the future but would need to go through a consultation process and provide a year’s advance notice of any hike in the tax.
Travel and tourism currently employs about 159,000 people in Wales, which is almost 12% of the workforce, and represents around 5% of the country’s GDP. The majority of tourists to Wales are made up of short-haul visitors from England and the Republic of Ireland, as well as from the United States and Germany.
Will a new tax “hammer” the sector?
Political opponents have blasted the Labour and Plaid Cymru proposition, expressing fears the Welsh travel and tourism sector could suffer as a result and that politicians should not be “hammering it with new taxes”.
Business owners too, reported by the BBC, are concerned that unless all councils unite in applying the fee, tourists could simply choose to stop visiting the areas where it does get rolled out, taking their spend to councils where the fee is not levied.
A potential £33 million-a-year
Nonetheless, Welsh Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said it was “fair visitors contribute towards local facilities, helping to fund infrastructure and services integral to their experience”. He also pointed out that “Visitor levies are common around the world, benefiting local communities, tourists and businesses – and we want the same for Wales.”
If all councils go ahead with the tourist tax, estimates say the proposed fee could raise as much as £33 million-a-year, which would be ringfenced for set uses, including boosting tourism, improving services, promoting the Welsh language, and infrastructure projects.
