STA Update: Highlights from STA CEO, Marc Crothall MBE, giving evidence to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill
The Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) CEO, Marc Crothall MBE, is currently giving evidence to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill.
Highlights from the session are outlined below:
09:44:45: “Our national tourism strategy talks about conditions for success and one of those conditions is right policy. It’s about getting this right and getting the application of it right if it does go ahead. We’d rather be in the camp, rather than on the outside throwing stones in, to try to influence and make sure together we get this absolutely right, so it does become a force for good.”
10:05:44: “It wouldn’t be a force for good if you suddenly start to put additional, undue cost onto a business that actually puts it into a more difficult position financially.”
10:10:49: “From an industry point of view, we are supportive of this because it does present the opportunity to enhance the local tourism, visitor experience and where we’ve been challenged doing some of the stuff we want to do – destination marketing organisations are a good example where investments could be made to support different types of activity.”
10:15:26: “It should be treated as supplementary income. It shouldn’t be at the expense of other budgets being slashed. This is the opportunity to grow the pot and it mustn’t become a ‘toilet tax’ or a ‘trash tax’. It’s there to be used for game-changing strategic investment.”
10:23:33: “Without question, we absolutely take the view that there should be a maximum cap on the amount of money you could take from any one customer who is choosing to holiday or staying in Scotland, whether you’re staying in The Balmoral Hotel or you’re in a bed and breakfast… that money spent in a levy is also money that could be spent doing stuff and spending money in pubs, restaurants, attractions, buying tickets for festivals, etc.”
10:40:15: “I can’t not reference the Short Term Let Licensing Scheme. This is about getting this right and not having lots of hurdles that have needed to be overcome. So it’s better regulation, good policy but the time will go very quickly. Everybody has to be on the bus with it from the off.”
10:53:51: “Ambition’s the key. I also co-chair the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Leadership Group and we talk about the top of the real strategic game changers of what can actually shift us in becoming that world leader in 21st century tourism. That will require investment of scale – the levy potentially provides a lot of that support.”
11:02:18: Commenting on what does the success of a visitor levy look like, Marc said: “The people who live in the communities, the businesses are sustainable – they thrive, they grow – and the visitors keep coming back.”
11:02:52: “It’s important that we communicate how that visitor has contributed to Scotland so they feel part of it by making it very clear your levy has not gone down a plughole to empty a bin, that it’s actually helped us to invest in doing this to create the destination that they’ve chosen to come visit again.”
Watch the session back on Scottish Parliament TV here.
