Tourist tax would 'transform resort into year-round offer'

A tourism levy in a seaside resort would be an "opportunity to transform the destination into a real year-round offer", says a council's leisure chief.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council is urging the government to allow it to introduce a so-called tourist tax.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said it has consulted on whether the levy will also be available for some areas without mayors, like BCP, and will publish a response in "due course".

The first coastal levy in the UK was set to be introduced in parts of Dorset in 2024 but was put on hold following opposition from hotels.

The new levy was announced in the November Budget by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, to enable Strategic Mayoral Authorities to charge visitors for overnight trips in hotels, holiday lets and B&Bs.

Some hoteliers in Bournemouth opposed the plans say tourists would "go elsewhere" if they were forced to pay more.

BCP Council leader Millie Earl previously told the BBC the resort was missing out on hundreds of thousands of pounds of income from visitors because it cannot introduce a levy.

Richard Herrett, BCP Council's cabinet member for destination, leisure and commercial operations, said a tourism levy would help the council deal with "the enormous pressure" on services such as the road and bus network, local hospitals, the police service, as well as waste along the seafront.

"We have close to half a million litres of waste capacity along the seafront and that still is an enormous challenge to deal with and our teams work enormously hard to get the beach back up and ready again by mid-morning the day after, but having some forms of income to help deal with that would be very useful," he said.

It also comes after police officers were assaulted at Bournemouth beach in half term during "disorder involving a large number of people", leading to several arrests.

Andy Lennox, chair of BCP's Destination Management Board, said a tourism levy "would benefit businesses if it is spent in the right way".

"If a tourism levy is introduced - and this is the key part, it's not something that we are pushing for, it's not something that we've asked for - however, if it is going to be automatically be levied, then it needs to be spent for tourism and for the benefit of local tourism and for inbound tourism."

Lennox added: "It's about making sure that that money is spent in the right and appropriate place and it's not just another tax that basically just goes into the wider pot."

Herrett said he would also like to see the money generated from a tourism levy be ring-fenced for the industry.

He said for those who live in the area, it was "very difficult" to get around on some of the really busy days, which illegal parking contributes to.

The council is also calling on the government to allow high fines to be issued in the area to tackle this.

Herrett added: "[A tourism levy] is an opportunity to really transform our destination into a real year-round offer."

An MHCLG spokesperson said: "The final design of the visitor levy has not been decided, and we will set out next steps in due course.

"The levy will be for Mayors to use, but we have consulted on whether it will also be available for some areas without mayors."