Meeting of the Parliament 16 January 2024
No, I am not. I am simply saying that we should not be wasting £400 million on two ferries that have not sailed and £1.5 billion on a national care service that may never actually be launched.
It is about priorities. The issue here is that councils will be forced, I think, in many instances, to introduce the visitor charge as a result of the SNP’s austerity agenda—because the Scottish Government is failing to fund our public services and our councils properly. The Government should be working in lockstep with the tourism industry to reduce the regulatory burden, but instead, by having bed and breakfasts, hotels and other operators collect the tax, the Government is, in effect, increasing the regulatory burden on them.
We should take on board, for example, the view of the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland, which has warned that the plans will
“incur additional costs for already struggling businesses”,
and the view of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, which has said that the levy will discourage tourists and displace spending away from restaurants, bars and shops. The STA has also said that the levy is
“overly complex and will be excessively burdensome for certain types of ... providers and visitors”.
We should be mindful that large operators such as Expedia are concerned that the levy
“will result in a patchwork of different rates and exemptions”.
For example, as we have heard today, the SNP is no doubt pleased about the fact that the levy will not apply to camper vans. In short, the legislation creates an uneven playing field. If we are going to include multiple different providers in the framework of the regulations, the Government should be encouraged to look at the cruise industry. When people come to this country on a cruise, they are often some of the lowest spenders in the communities that they visit, given that they get their board and lodgings on the vessel on which they have arrived.