Highland Visitor Levy

Highland Tourism acknowledges the need for increased funding for infrastructure, services, and environmental stewardship, as well as an opportunity for the private and public sectors to invest together in an innovative solution that will aim to address many of the issues and opportunities for the Highlands as a leading sustainable destination.


However, we believe that implementing a visitor levy, as per the current proposals, at the same rate as the City of Edinburgh poses significant risks to the fragile, seasonal tourism industry in the Highlands. So much has changed since the initial community consultation was carried out pre-COVID, that the proposed TVL is now compounding issues such as ongoing growth in high-volume, low-value tourism (source – Highland Council Tourism Strategy 2024 – 64.7% growth in visitor numbers from 2012 to 2023 versus 21% economic growth), higher taxation, increased costs, and lack of skilled labour and housing. We see the need for financial stress testing as part of this consultation exercise in order to more fully understand the potential risks and opportunities and to ensure that TVL implementation is right for the Highlands


We support requests from the wider tourism industry in the Highlands for a substantial extension to the consultation period to enable further discussions within the industry. Specifically, Highland CIC, incorporating Highland Tourism and Highland Renewables, is requesting a meeting with leaders of the Highland Council to take place, together with consideration of international best practices in ‘tourism tax,’ which is for it to be used as an opportunity to build a stronger destination as part of a strategic vision and mission (source – Tourism Taxes by Design White Paper, Nov 2020).

We welcome the approach to private-public partnership as outlined in the Highland Council Sustainable Tourism Strategy. We believe the strength of this strategic approach and the presentation of a positive, broader portfolio of solutions will not only mitigate risks associated with the current proposals for TVL but also provide an opportunity for sustainable destination development for the Highlands that will be world-leading.


We believe this is a unique opportunity to innovate and drive positive change, embracing the business and wider community’s views and using TVL as an opportunity for collaboration across what is currently a very fragmented industry in the Highlands. Currently, this dilutes the impact of any efforts for both tourism development and strategic and impactful use of renewable community benefit funds. We recognise that this, in turn, poses challenges for the Highland Council. We look forward to meeting to discuss it and to consider how, by working in partnership with the Highland Council, Highland CIC – including Highland Tourism and Highland Renewables – can contribute to an innovative solution.