Meeting of the Parliament 19 February 2026 [Draft]
Scotland benefits from having a significant number of first-class sectors that compete with the best in the world, including our world-renowned tourism sector. The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to working closely with the sector to support it and make it as effective as it can be in continuing to attract large numbers of visitors and in enabling those visitors to witness the fabulous culture, heritage and warm welcome that Scotland offers and to take advantage of the services that the tourism sector provides around our country.
We continue to engage significantly with the sector across a range of measures to strengthen the provision for tourists visiting Scotland. In that regard, the Visitor Levy (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill was introduced to Parliament in January. The measures in the bill build on the existing framework that the Parliament agreed through the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024. Local government and tourism stakeholders sought a mechanism to raise revenue to support local infrastructure and services that are impacted by tourism, which is a desire that the Scottish Government very much supports.
The 2024 act provided the discretionary power for local authorities to introduce a visitor levy on the purchase of overnight accommodation. This bill responds to stakeholder calls for effective and proportionate further measures to increase flexibility in designing visitor levy schemes.