by A coalition of mayors from England calls on the government to enable local authorities to generate a barcelona-style visitor levy in order to achieve income from tourism.
The group, which is led by the mayor of the city of Liverpool, Steve Rotheram, argues that a visitor levy would open up important funds for tourism and cultural infrastructure, strengthen regional growth and reduce dependence on the financing of the central government.
The letter to the cultural secretary Lisa Nandy and the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was signed together by the Mayor of the Manchester area, Andy Burnham. the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan; the northeastern mayor Kim McGuinness; Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands; And the mayor of West Yorkershire, Tracy Brabin.
They say that provisions in the upcoming English decentralization or in a certain financial law could be carried out in order to give local authorities the freedom to design and introduce locally managed visitor levy.
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It would mean that cities that represent them, including Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham and London, could introduce charges from tourism because of direct advantages.
Many European cities have similar taxes, including Venice, Lisbon and Amsterdam, such as the Spain’s Balearic Islands.
In the Liverpool City region, in which more than 60 million visitors take place annually, the mayor could collect almost £ 11 million a year, said the mayors. The city organized Eurovision in 2023, which achieved a direct economic effect of 54 million GBP.
If a levy of £ 1 to £ 5 per night was introduced in Greater Manchester, it could collect between 8 and 40 million GBP per year, which could be used in the direction of infrastructure projects such as the regeneration of Old Trafford or airport development, said the mayors.
The mayors said that the funds collected by a levy for the local reinvestment had to act in a clue and the government urgently had to act, since the Devolved governments in Scotland and Wales progress with their own tourism taxes and put the English regions in danger.
“The Liverpool City region is a global icon of creativity, culture and character, which attracts more than 60 million visitors every year and supports a visitor economy of 6.25 billion GBP,” said Rotheram. “You have to be incredibly proud of that – but it is also associated with pressure on our infrastructure and services.
“A small indictment of night stays – the way most of us would not think twice while traveling abroad – would give us power to invest directly in the things that make our area so special.”
Burnham added: “At a time when national resources are under real pressure, a modest levy offers something that we all pay in other parts of Europe – a fair and sustainable opportunity to support our local services.”
McGuinness said: “A local tourism tax is so important in the rest of the world that you hardly notice it, so that it shouldn’t be a big step here in Great Britain.”
Last year, a report by the Landscape Organization Friends of the Lake District made a similar call. The managing director of the organization, Mike Hill, said: “In most places around the world we have looked at, we have made a kind of tourism tax, the number of tourism actually increased because the place is getting better.”
