A NEW row over controversial plans for a bed tax in Edinburgh erupted yesterday as one of Scotland's leading event organisers threw his weight behind the idea.
Pete Irvine, the creator of the city's Hogmanay celebrations and author of a best-selling tourism guide to Scotland, has backed the idea of charging visitors extra to help to pay for major events.
He would like to see any money raised from visitor
s staying in Edinburgh over New Year ringfenced to go into the coffers of the Hogmanay budget. Guests would have around £1 added to their bills under the "visitor levy" scheme.
Earlier this month, it emerged that Edinburgh was ranked as the ninth most expensive in the world for hotels. But the city council and leading figures in the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) support the scheme.
However, there is growing opposition from leading industry figures amid concern about damage to Edinburgh's reputation. Yesterday, the city's main business organisation vowed to fight the introduction.
Members of ETAG will meet next month to discuss whether to press ahead with plans for some form of levy scheme, which will only directly affect hotels.
Research carried out on behalf of the group has found that such a venture, which has been hugely successful in cities like Vancouver, could generate an extra £3.2 million a year for the city.
Giving evidence at Holyrood to a parliamentary inquiry on the tourism industry, Mr Irvine said: "The budget we have for the event (Hogmanay] has been the same for years.
"Hogmanay needs money and we are the only show in town, there are no conferences at the end of December, no business travel. Why shouldn't there be a hotel tax?"
He told MSPs that when the event was first set up Edinburgh was a "ghost town", with only a few hotels booked up and many attractions shut.
Simon Williams, the head of the Edinburgh Principal Hotels Association, is the project "champion" for the scheme within ETAG.
He said: "The industry has yet to come to a view on this idea, but it wouldn't work unless it was a compulsory scheme, and I can only envisage hotels being part of it initially. It's important to stress that this isn't a hotel tax; it's a visitor levy scheme where all money raised would be ringfenced. "
However, Graham Bell, an Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce spokesman, said: "Of course it's an additional tax; if it's compulsory it must be.
"We don't get any sense of appetite for this at all. We believe it could be very damaging for Edinburgh and affect the city's ability to compete internationally if it was to go ahead. We're completely opposed to it and believe the whole idea should be rejected."
The full article contains 464 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
