Tourists to Manchester city centre will have to pay a new ‘tax’ from April next year to fund a business improvement district group.
The new Manchester Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID) will ‘improve the visitor experience’ to the city centre and ‘support the growth of the visitor economy’ for the next five years. The new charge will cost guests only £1 per night.
Some 74 hotels and short-stay serviced apartments will be charging the fee, which the Manchester Evening News understands will raise around £4 million in total annually. Unlike most BIDs, the ABID only has a rough geographical footprint — the city’s inner ring road — so new hotels in the zone Manchester and Salford will also charge the sum.
