NC500: Would a tourist tax work in the Highlands?

The proceeds will be used to pay for improvements across the capital to better secure its future as a global destination, but the scheme – which will be finalised in the new year – is not without its critics, with some suggesting it will be bad for businesses.

Given there are growing fears about levels of tourism in the Highlands with the North Coast 500’s popularity continuing to soar post-lockdown, there are questions around whether a similar scheme could help to improve infrastructure in that area of the country and potentially stem or stagger the flow of visitors.

It is a topic on which experts seem to have mixed views as they grapple with the conundrum of not disincentivising tourists – given they are so important to the economy in the Highlands – while ensuring residents’ lives are not ruined by out-of-control influxes of visitors.

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Last year, Lochcarron resident Robin Pettigrew submitted a document entitled Tourism: But Not At Any Price as part of a community response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on implementing a tourist tax, which argued for a vehicle-based levy over a tax on accommodation as most people travel in motorhomes.

Steve Taylor, a tourism expert at the University of the Highlands and Islands, said he could see the benefits of a tourism tax being introduced and the revenue being targeted at developing helpful schemes like subsidised public transport in hotspots such as Glenfinnan where he lives.

He told The National: “What I would like to see [in Glenfinnan] is people arriving more by public transport but that is in itself a tricky thing to implement, so maybe a tourism tax could come in to help subsidise some additional transport.

“I do support the notion of a tourism tax on accommodation. I’ve been to plenty of places overseas where you have to pay, but I do like to see some transparency of what is happening to that money, that it is being properly ringfenced for the local area and community.

“If there was going to be a Highland tourism tax, I’m hoping it would be earmarked for local schemes.

Parking on the roadside in Glenfinnan is placing strain on residents (Image: NTS)

“I think the easiest way is a tax on accommodation as opposed to a vehicle tax, I’m just not sure how that [a vehicle tax] would work.

“I don’t see it [a tax] as making a huge difference on its own but I think it should be part of a suite of things, trying to get people to come at different times of year, visit less obvious places.”

Ewelina Lacka, a digital marketing expert at the University of Edinburgh who was supportive of the tourism levy in the capital, said she was unsure whether it was the answer in the Highlands and stressed groundwork needed to be done initially to discover if it was suitable for rural locations.

She said: “We have to be careful how we discuss tourism in places like Skye and the NC500 because the livelihoods of people often depend on the tourist economy.

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“We can’t do something to deprive them of potential income, but equally we have to make sure we balance different interests because not everyone works in tourism.

“In rural locations, the difficulty is whether the tourist levy will discourage visitors from coming. Without having any research, I would say no [it wouldn’t].

“My personal view is that I think tourists should give to the local economy and tourism tax would be one of the ways of doing that. I think a vehicle tax would be difficult to implement though.

“In Edinburgh it works because it’s a focus on accommodation and people have to stay somewhere. You can attach tax to something, how do you attach tax to a motorhome? There are practical aspects that are more complex than in urban locations.

“I think it’s important to have consultations with stakeholders.”

While a tourism tax could have advantages for raising revenue for infrastructure, it should perhaps not be seen as an effective method for controlling the numbers of people that visit the Highlands.

Anna De Jong, a tourism lecturer at the University of Glasgow, said she there was a lack of evidence as to whether taxes discourage tourists.

She said: “There isn’t much evidence yet to suggest they actually stop people doing any of the behaviours they were going to do anyway.

“In some ways there’s a justification because the money could then be directed into infrastructure or conservation projects, but there’s no evidence to suggest they disincentivise people from going.

“People are just going to pay the money, we’ve seen that in Venice for example.”