Cruise Ship Levy: consultation analysis

7. Process a local authority should follow before introducing a cruise ship levy

Chapter 7 explores respondents’ opinions about what local authorities may need to consider before implementing any levy, if they are given the power to do so. Considering the current legislation providing local authorities with the power to implement a visitor levy, specific steps must be taken before enacting a levy. These steps include: an assessment of the impacts of a visitor levy, a requirement to consult those affected, requirements for reporting and ongoing stakeholder engagement, and the use of the funding must consider any local tourism strategy. This section examines what, if any, similar actions should be enacted in the case of introducing a cruise ship levy.

Q9. Which (if any) of the following proposed actions do you believe local authorities should be required to undertake before being able to introduce a cruise ship levy? Please choose yes, no, or don’t know for each proposed action below.

Q9 consisted of a series of questions about a range of actions, with respondents asked a separate question for each action. The following table shows the response to each action of Q9 among those answering (n=). A full table for each iteration, including sub-group analysis, is appended. For ease of comparison, the table has been ordered from highest to lowest support for each action.

All but one of the proposed actions were supported by at least four fifths of those answering, with the top three each supported by at least nine in ten. 92% of those answering felt it was essential to have appropriate mechanisms in place to allow for collection (and if necessary remittance) of a cruise ship levy, 91% that there needed to be set and published objectives for any cruise ship levy and what it was seeking to achieve, and 90% indicated there should be information about the cruise ship levy and how to pay it available in the public domain, for businesses and others.

Reflecting the high levels of agreement with each action overall, the vast majority of individuals, organisations, and types of organisations were also in favour of each action. Across all actions, the lowest level of support was 50% (or two out of four respondents) among ‘Other’ organisations indicating that local authorities should have assessed and documented the administrative burden from a proposed cruise ship levy and any steps taken to minimise this; at least 83% of all other types of organisations supported this action.