Sir Sadiq Khan has voiced his support for a London ‘tourist tax’ in a move which could eventually see overnight visitors charged extra for every night they spend in the capital.
Similar charges already exist in several European cities, like Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam, and are typically added to a traveller’s hotel bill at the end of their stay.
In England, no local authority has the power – without permission from the Government – to directly impose a straightforward tourist tax, though Manchester and Liverpool city councils have introduced a form of tourism levy via a legal workaround.
The mayor told the Local Democracy Reporting Service in October last year that he was “happy to look into” whether a charge on overnight stays for travellers could work for London. He said he would be “following the evidence”, after the idea was discussed at the Centre for London think tank’s annual conference.
But in a shift in tone this week, Sir Sadiq expressed his support for the idea, after being publicly asked about it at City Hall by a Labour ally.
Speaking at Mayor’s Question Time on Thursday, London Assembly member Bassam Mahfouz listed Tokyo, Lisbon, Barcelona, Prague and New York City as places which already have tourist taxes.
“Isn’t it about time that London has the power to do the same thing?”, the Labour member for Ealing and Hillingdon asked.
Sir Sadiq said: “The thing about those cities is, many of us visit them, and don’t really mind paying the extra few euros, in relation to a tourism levy.
“I think the Government should be looking at giving us the powers to have an accommodation levy. But my promise to the hotels and AirBnbs and so forth is the money would be used to improve the environment around that, to encourage more tourists.
“What would be unfair, I think, is if money was raised and was spent elsewhere, and people not seeing the benefits of the moneys being raised locally or regionally – so it’s really important to give that reassurance to the sector, because they’ve had a tough few years, particularly post-pandemic.
“If we can reassure the sector that we can work on a scheme that benefits inward tourism, it benefits more tourists to come, I think they’d be supportive of it as well.”
Mr Mahfouz replied: “Thank you, mayor, for that reassurance, and clearly if it works well in places like Paris and New York City, it could work here.”
At October’s Centre for London conference, local politicians from each of London’s major political parties gave their backing to a tourist tax.
Kim Taylor-Smith, the Tory deputy leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said the idea was a “no brainer”, while City Hall’s Lib Dem group leader Hina Bokhari said she was “very supportive” of it.
However, UKHospitality, a trade body representing the sector, said additional taxes would be “extremely damaging”.
https://southwarknews.co.uk/area/london/support-grows-for-a-tourist-tax-in-london/
by urbexed
39 comments
Ah yes let’s make London a place with even more fees and costs to visit, good idea
It’s not just tourists who use hotels
As long as it doesn’t become like the US, I don’t see a problem. In the US, an advertised room might be $49/night. After tax, and all the local and various other taxes and fees, plus a 2nd guest fee (which almost doubles the room rate) it’s now 120 plus.
Feels like a money grab for no meaningful benefit. Do we really need to follow the paths others have taken?
I went to Brussels probably 10 years ago and had to pay a tourist tax when I checked out of the hotel, felt like a scam, never wanted to go back to Brussels but mainly because Brussels is shit.
Yeah so it’s not enough that we have horrible levels of phone theft, expensive and slow travel, the serious danger of getting stabbed and everything costs too much, we now expect tourists to pay extra for the privilege of visiting.
Tourists would do well to skip London and visit Stonehenge instead.
I’m broadly in favour as long as it’s used for things that will make things better for tourists and residents alike.
For example, more public toilets or even improvements to public transport.
Completely agree! Us Londoners pay tourist tax in different cities and those cities haven’t seen a decline in tourism after introducing the tax.
I think they should start charging for museums too. The British museum had around 6 million visitors last year. It’s not much but charging them £1 per person would generate £6million, and £2 per person would be £12million. That money could be used to support London’s cultural heritages and tourism industries to provide a better experience for everyone.
And our taxes will finally actually go back to what we care about.
I’m sorry, but NHS is in shambles. They just upped the fees for the tube. Already paying an exorbitant amount for taxes. Got 1 million other things that they’re putting fees on in the city towards locals. But like where is all the money they keep collecting. What’s the point of doing a tourist tax if it doesn’t go back to the people. Why are students having to pay £25 daily to ride public transportation into school? It’s pointless putting on tax for tourist if that money doesn’t actually go back into the community
I stay in various cities across Europe for work and weekend trips away and I have no problem paying the city tax as long as hotels are upfront about at the time of booking. A couple of times it was only mentioned in the small print, which is a bit sneaky.
It could help freeze TFL fares for longer, offer more 24 hour bus routes or night tubes. Which in turn would start to attract more locals back into the city where they tend to visit local businesses, boosting those, the economy and all the positive trickle down benefits for the city
Long story short, London benefits the UK with tax revenue and income tax.
London doesn’t get equivalent support back from the UK so needs to find other ways of generating income – this is a good idea.
If its done right not taking the mick with big charges just a fiver or so which goes back in to London I don’t see a problem its not like its going to push tourists away; most who travel to London are not paying small hotel and travel fees anyways whats couple quid more to most of them
We should also charge tourists for museums
Not sure why people are whining… This is so common in Europe.
This thread shows some people are just so hell-bent on disagreeing with anything, aren’t they?
Cities all over Europe do it. Some visitors are surprised when they find out they don’t owe tourist tax.
If we charged £1 per visitor, per night (about 20,280,000 visitors from overseas per year on an average of a 6.2 night visit), we would raise an extra £125,000,000 per annum. None of it paid by Londoners.
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Yes, this is very beneficial for the country. They should do it.
Sure, why not. Lots of other European countries do it.
Seems like a no brainer to me. A lot of other European countries do it.
We’ll be paying to fart next. Good grief
And the government will come along and ship all that lovely tax money off to Ukraine, it will have achieved nothing. All of our problems stem from the utterly ridiculous government policies that BOTH Tory and Labour LOVE.
They should do a tourist tax in Grimsby 😍
While I don’t think this is a bad idea, my mind is also saying “Now they’re taxing the tourists too!”
Not like you’re gonna see any of that money
The unstoppable force of Londoners’ disdain for extra taxes meets the immovable object of their disdain for tourists.
As long as the tax raised stays in London and isn’t sent off to another part, I don’t see an issue with this.
I would argue that this tax is incuded in the ridiculously high Tourist Visa application costs.
As an Australian who intends on returning to the UK for another holiday sometime in the future, I’m okay with this.
Maybe make it seasonal though, as the problems are mainly during the summer. Maybe reduce or remove it in the lower parts of the year to encourage people to travel in the low season?
Not a bad idea, but as others mentioned that lots of places do it in Europe, then it should be the same here too. Everyone pays it, even if they’re coming from elsewhere in the uk.
100% should happen!
I, as a Londoner, have had to pay this tax in every European city I’ve gone on holiday in. Why shouldn’t others do the same here?
£5 per hotel booking. Let’s make some fucking money!
I pay €2 a night to stay in a hotel as a local tax every time I visit my factory in Belgium. I think a tourist tax (but please don’t call it that government) is not an unreasonable thing. However it should be UK wide rather than just London however appreciate this is a London thread
People here keep saying Europe does it, so we should do it. It’s a very shitty argument. Tax is not answer to everything.
Tax me harder daddy!
No. Its hostile.
Fine as long as it doesn’t kill the buzz… Tourists can be annoying on escalators but they are as defining to London’s identity as residents themselves, and not just because of the revenue they bring. Without them we’d quickly turn into a larger Birmingham. Nothing wrong with Birmingham, but we already have one.
No support was ever given to increasing or creating new taxes.
You already make us pay for so much visa costs to get here tho can you just take it from the visa free countries
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