UK tourists face new Wales visitor levy 'and children aren't exempt'

Wales may introduce a visitor levy for people staying overnight. People are set to be charged a visitor levy under a scheme that could raise up to £33m a year to be ploughed back into tourism and culture - and children won't be exempt, either.

All visitors would be charged 75p a night to stay in campsites and hostels and £1.25 for all other accommodation including hotels, B&Bs and holiday lets. The Welsh government’s finance secretary, Mark Drakeford, said: “I think people will think of it as a simple act of fairness, that you make a very small contribution to the costs that would have been incurred as a result of you visiting that area.”

Drakeford said: “In some parts of Wales, the language is the reason that people visit. People visit not just for the physical fabric of the place, but for the cultural component as well. You come to Wales, you are coming to a different place.

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"And the language and the culture is part of what makes it attractive. Keeping the character of the area as well as the physical fabric is part of what local authorities would be able to use the money they would have collected to do.

"This is something that is happening around the world. So I think we’re just at a slightly leading edge of a policy that will become very common indeed in future. We’ve not rushed at it. We’re doing it carefully. We’re trying to take the industry with us, give people plenty of time to prepare for it, because that way we can make it a success.”

Rowland Rees-Evans, chair of the Wales Tourism Alliance, said: “What has been proposed will increase the costs for tourism and hospitality businesses, which will be passed on to our visitors, without any perceived added value.

"This was the Welsh government’s opportunity to deliver a gold standard in tourism and accommodation – setting Wales apart from the rest of the UK. Instead it has merely made Wales more expensive without any perceived added-value for our visitors.”