Millions of tourists to the UK could soon be asked to pay a local visitor levy as cash-strapped councils try to raise money to fund services.
Nearly half of Scotland’s local councils are considering a mandatory levy on overnight stays, known as a tourist tax, to help cope with a surge in visitors that has overwhelmed places such as Skye, the Callanish stones on Lewis and Orkney’s neolithic sites.
Highland council, home to some of the most under-pressure hotspots such as the fairy pools on Skye and Glenfinnan viaduct, has started consulting local businesses and residents about a 5% levy on all overnight stays which could come into effect in late 2026.
On Monday, the Welsh government will announce proposals for a visitor levy mirroring powers introduced in law by the Scottish parliament this year, and similar taxes in major European cities such as Berlin and Barcelona.
Ministers in Cardiff say it will raise extra money for councils to invest in tourism and amenities, particularly in the areas most popular with visitors such as Gwynedd in the north, Pembrokeshire in the south-west and Cardiff.
Edinburgh is due to become the first place in the UK where a mandatory levy is in force, in July 2026, after council leaders rebelled after an upsurge in Airbnb rentals, congested and soiled streets, and with global hotel companies profiting from visitors.
The city expects to raise up to £50m a year from a 5% surcharge on overnight stays. It will plough that money into improving public parks, funding the city’s festivals and building new social housing to help mitigate surging house prices driven by a boom in short-term lets.
The costs of over-tourism in Scotland were highlighted this month when the travel guide Fodors added the North Coast 500 road route which circles the west coast and Highlands to its “No list” due to its “untenable popularity”.
The route’s fame, particularly among British holidaymakers, has led to tensions with local people. Motor homes choke its often narrow single track roads and dump waste on rural verges; sports car drivers have used it for races and campsites have been overwhelmed.
Highland council expects it could raise £10m a year from the levy, which could be invested in French-style aires, or motorhome camping areas, if locals call for those in a consultation it launched last week.
Ken Gowans, the council’s economy and infrastructure chair, said: “Right now we don’t have a sustainable tourism offer in the Highlands. The cause of the wear and tear isn’t local people, but they’re having to pay for it through their council tax.
“If we have this money, not only will we be able to maintain services and infrastructure, we can improve them. We welcome tourists openly but if we want people coming back, we should improve the experience.”
A survey by the Guardian of mainly rural councils in Scotland found that 13 are considering the levy, including Orkney, Shetland and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles), which are carrying out a joint review. Cities such as Aberdeen and Stirling are also looking at it.
Hoteliers and tourism businesses in some of those areas, and in Wales, have said it could deter visitors, reduce spending and increase red tape. One hotelier in Inveraray in Argyll and Bute described it as “financial suicide”.
Rob Dickson, the director of industry and events at VisitScotland, which supports the levy, said many tourism businesses realised during the Covid crisis that the sector needed to invest in the places they worked in to make it sustainable. A well-written policy would allow tourism firms to help design the scheme.
“Tourism should be good for everybody. It should be good for the visitor, it should be good for the businesses and it should be good for the places they visit,” he said. “This type of long term investment [from the levy] should help grow the value of the visitor economy.”
Meanwhile, visitors to the Lake District could be charged for bringing a car or staying overnight in order to preserve the future of the national park, a charity has suggested, after a report found tourism was placing an “invisible burden” on the area.
The report, Who Pays for the Lake District?, by the sustainable tourism expert Dr Davina Stanford and the landscape charity Friends of the Lake District, considered the impact of the industry on the natural environment and local communities.
Michael Hill, the chief executive of Friends of the Lake District, said: “There’s 18 million visitors a year, and there’s only about 40,000 residents in the Lake District. So that’s 450 visitors for every resident. And of course, infrastructure like wastewater treatment plants, for example, sewage plants, are usually scaled to deliver the needs of the local population.”
The report looked at how places across the world, and particularly in Europe, including the Balearic Islands and Venice, deal with mass tourism and manage its effects.
“I think there are still tensions in the Balearics, as we’ve seen recently, between local people and the number of visitors,” Stanford said, “but nevertheless, I think it is a good example of how a visitor tax can be used to raise income for initiatives that might not otherwise be funded.”
“We are not anti-tourist,” Hill said. “We’re not saying, let’s tax tourists to keep them away, absolutely not. Quite the opposite; in most of the places around the world that we’ve looked at that have brought in some sort of tourism levy, tourism numbers have actually increased, because the place gets better.”
