Several north councillors have backed early plans to introduce a “tourist tax” which would help cope with soaring visitor numbers.
Local authority director of development and infrastructure, Stuart Black, says implementing a £1-a-night levy on tourists staying at local hotels would raise £10million a year to meet the costs of pressures on infrastructure.
But some councillors feel the levy might put tourists off, as VAT is higher in the UK than other parts of Europe where similar schemes are used, while others say the levy could be too easily increased in future years.
However, council convener Bill Lobban said: “The £1 levy would give £10million to spend on things like roads and toilets and car parks.
“The levy would be paid directly by tourists. Their perception of the Highlands can be wrecked because on the way home a pot hole could wreck a tyre, or they might have to go to the toilet behind a bush.
“I have never ever not gone somewhere on holiday just because they have got a tourist tax.”
The proposals emerged in a report which was discussed in a full council meeting in Inverness yesterday.
Councillors also approved a recommendation to set up a working group to progress the plans.
Cromarty Firth councillor Maxine Smith, who has lobbied for the tourist tax, said: “I would like to be able to offer tourists a Rolls-Royce service. To do that we do need an income. It’s about putting money back for the tourists and the council, which has to pick up the bills for things like worn out roads.”
Inverness South councillor Ken Gowans said: “This is quite an untapped source of income that is staring right at us. At the moment, tourists use our roads but people of the Highlands are currently paying for it, so it would make a massive difference to us.”
Inverness South councillor Andrew Jarvie said: “I have a deep reservation about this. It may well be £10million but how many months will it be until we say, ‘let’s make it £2 and bump it up every year?’”
Skye councillor John Finlayson said: “If there is going to be a tourist tax, communities need the confidence some of the money will be coming back into their own communities.”
Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh councillor Derek MacLeod said he feared a “slippery slope of killing the golden goose,” as the higher VAT in the UK could put off tourists.