Mayor says tourism tax could fund travel improvements on coast and rural North Yorkshire
Funding from a new tourist tax on overnight stays could be used to improve transport links to the coast, North York Moors, and Yorkshire Dales.
Mayors will be given new powers to introduce a charge on overnight stays in their regions and David Skaith has said he would “love to explore” using funds to improve connectivity in rural parts of the county.
The elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire said that the scheme, which is under consultation, could raise £50m a year locally and support investment and growth in the region.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Mr Skaith said that improving transport links to Whitby and rural parts of the coast is already part of “wider transport plans”.
“If we can bring that into the opportunity around the levy, and having that extra spend, being able to put some of that into transport to improve connectivity right across the region in the Moors and Dales, which, as we know, are such challenging areas for people to move around,” he said
Mr Skaith has long campaigned for a visitor tax which he has described as a “game changer” for the region.
However, some hoteliers have already said they are “deeply concerned” by the proposal’s implications for businesses and tourism.
The Mayor said that he will be “very much about working with the local authorities, working with businesses, working with the tourism sector as a whole, to really bring them all on the journey together and actually work out what we want to see from such a levy, how it would work, how it would be collected”.
Speaking to the LDRS, Mr Skaith added: “Investing in transport in those areas will not only help tourism and visitors but help those local communities who live there all year round, who have seen a vast number of their public transport offerings cut over the last decade or so.
“For us, being able to shore up those and actually increase them is exactly what we’d love to explore with getting a tourist levy.”
The Government has said that any fee would apply to visitors’ overnight trips, and it would be up to mayors and other local leaders to “introduce a modest charge if it’s right for their area”.
Businesses, communities, and other interested parties can provide input on how the measure should work during a 12-week consultation period.
The consultation is available on the gov.uk website and will close on February 18.