Wales moves forward with plans to tax all visitors

The Welsh Government is going ahead with its plans for a tourism tax in Wales. It will also create a national register of all people providing visitor accommodation in Wales. The proposal for a tourism tax has been hugely controversial with tourism bosses fearing it will put visitors off.

A statement released by the Welsh Government says a bill called the "Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill" will go forward in the Senedd on November 25.

It will give councils the power to introduce a "visitor levy" - described as a small charge paid by people staying overnight in visitor accommodation.

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The money, the statement says, "will raise additional funds for local authorities to support the long-term sustainability of our tourism industry". I will be up to each council to decide whether or not to introduce it.

The joint statement by economy minister Rebecca Evans and finance minister Mark Drakeford says: "One of the Welsh Government’s tax principles is that our taxes should be developed through collaboration and involvement. Through consultation, continued engagement and the discovery work led by the Welsh Revenue Authority, we have received consistent feedback that we need a form of registration in place to support the levy. This has informed our decision to include a national register of all those providing visitor accommodation in Wales within the bill.

"We have previously consulted on a statutory licensing scheme for visitor accommodation in Wales as a means of helping to establish a level playing field and to ensure visitors have confidence in the high-standards available throughout Wales. The registration scheme proposed in the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill is the first step towards that scheme."

They say a second bill, which will include a statutory licensing scheme and "enable visitor accommodation providers to demonstrate how their accommodation meets certain conditions" will follow but they continue to speak to "tourism stakeholders, accommodation providers and local authorities".