'It's not a tax on business': Tracy Brabin 'keen' on West Yorkshire overnight visitor levy
Last year Mayors were granted powers to introduce European-style tourism taxes on overnight stays for travellers
The Mayor of West Yorkshire has said she is “keen” on bringing in an overnight visitor levy, to “make sure that West Yorkshire gets the benefit of an uplift in tourism”.
Tracy Brabin said her combined authority were currently having “consensus conversations” about how it could be introduced.
It comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last year that mayors would get the powers to introduce European-style tourism taxes on travellers staying overnight.
It would bring England into line with Wales and Scotland, which already has levies in places like Edinburgh.
GoCompare has warned that mirroring Edinburgh’s 5 per cent charge would add £138 to a week-long family-of-four staycation.
Ms Brabin said: “When you go abroad everybody pays it without batting an eyelid.
“What this is for is visitors to our region who will pay a small amount to support infrastructure or support creative and cultural investments to make the experiences better, not just for tourists, but also for people who live there.”
She said she was “quite keen on it because I know that Leeds, Bradford, Haworth and Ilkley are beautiful parts of the world”.
“We want to make sure that West Yorkshire really gets the benefit of that uplift in tourism.
“We had three million extra visitors from Bradford City of Culture - just imagine how we could have used that additional funding to have a deeper legacy for culture across Bradford and West Yorkshire.”
The mayor pushed back at some of the concerns raised, saying: “It’s not a tax on the business - it’s something that people are very familiar with and used to when they travel elsewhere.”