Visitor Levy Bill: business and regulatory impact assessment

Footnotes

1. Scottish Government, 'Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment on the proposal for a Local Transient Visitor Levy', 2019.

2. Scottish Government, 'Programme for Government 2022-23', 2022.

3. Non business organisations such as charities may offer commercial accommodation to visitors, such as universities letting out student accommodation outwith term-time and bodies such as the National Trust for Scotland. It is possible that non-statutory guidance will define some charities offering accommodation as exempt from a visitor levy.

4. Based on data sourced from the Inter-departmental Business Register (IDBR) and Business Register Employment Survey (BRES) for SIC 55. Registered enterprises refers to businesses that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE.

5. The Sustainable Tourism Growth Sector is one of the six sectors identified in 2015 that Scotland had a distinct comparative advantage. For more information, see Growth sector statistics.

6. Highland Council, 'Tourism Levy Consultation' and Edinburgh Council, 'A Consultation on the City of Edinburgh Council proposal for a Transient Visitor Levy/ Tourist Tax within the city'.

7. Visitor numbers in Paris did fall in 2016, however, this has been linked to cancellations of events and general safety fears following the terror attacks on the city in November 2015. Visitor numbers to Paris recovered and grew in subsequent years (until the Covid-19 pandemic).

8. Group NAO, 'Tourism Taxes by Design: Destination Funding and the impact of tourism taxes on European cities and urban communities', 2020.

9. Scottish Government, 'Tourism tax: messages from the national discussion', 2018.

10. Manchester City Council announced in 2022 that it intended to introduce a form of tourist tax, however the model is based on existing powers available to local businesses though the Business Improvement District program. The Manchester model is discussed in more detail in section 4 of this BRIA.

11. COSLA, 'COSLA Plan 2022-2027'.

12. Scottish Government, 'Tourism tax: messages from the national discussion', 2019.

13. Scottish Government, 'Consultation on The Principles of a Local Discretionary Transient Visitor Levy or Tourist Tax', 2019.

14. Scottish Government, 'The Principles of a Local Discretionary Transient Visitor Levy or Tourist Tax', 2020.

15. It should be noted that question 33 of the consultation sought views on any other groups that may have been overlooked in the analysis presented in the partial BRIA.

16. Non business organisations such as charities may offer commercial accommodation to visitors, such as universities letting out student accommodation outwith term-time and bodies such as the National Trust for Scotland. It is possible that non-statutory guidance will define some charities offering accommodation as exempt from a visitor levy.

17. Lloret et al. 'Environmental and human health impacts of cruise tourism: A review', 2021.

18. See Supporting Perthshire Big Tree Country scheme | Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust (pkct.org)

19. See Visit Moray Speyside

20. STR provides data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry, for more information see Data-Driven Solutions Empowering the Hospitality Industry | STR

21. Manchester City Council, Report for Resolution: Manchester Accommodation Business Improvement District, 2022.

22. See VATGPB6670 - Local government partnership programmes: examples: Business Improvement Districts - HMRC internal manual - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

23. The consultation considered alternative options for the so-called 'basis of charge' including a flat charge per person per night or per room (or room equivalent) per night, or a charge that varied depending on the quality of the accommodation.

24. Booking.com, '2022 Sustainable Travel Report', 2022.

25. Scottish Tourism Alliance, 'Local Visitor Levy Manifesto with Recommendations', 2023.

26. Hosts and operators of short-term let accommodation will be required to apply to their local authority for a licence before 1 October 2023.

27. OECD, 'Tax Administration 2022: Comparative Information on OCEA and other Advanced and Emerging Economies', 2022.

28. Note this adjustment is in line with HM Treasury guidance on assessing optimism bias in appraisals of projects concerned with the provision of equipment and/or development of software and systems.

29. Note 'Year T' is the year in which a local authority implements a visitor levy.

30. Self-Employment Income Support Scheme supplementary statistics: November 2021 (Table 4c) is available at Self-Employment Income Support Scheme statistics: November 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

31. STR, 'Tourism Tax: A blessing or a curse'.

32. Annex A sets out estimates of potential revenues arising from a visitor levy. It is important to note that turnover statistics will include turnover generated from sales of other goods and services sold by businesses in the sector (food, drink, use of spa and gym facilities etc.) which would not be subject to a visitor levy.

33. Scottish Government, 'The incidence of short-term lets in Scotland – Short-term lets – impact on communities: research'.

34. WEF, 'Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019', 2019.

35. WEF UK profile, 2019.

36. For first-class branded hotels based on STR data

37. WEF, 'Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021: Rebuilding for a Sustainable and Resilient Future', 2022.

38. European Commission, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, 'The impact of taxes on the competitiveness of European tourism : final report', 2017.

39. UNTWO Competitiveness | UNWTO

40. Dupeyras, A. and N. MacCallum, 'Indicators for Measuring Competitiveness in Tourism: A Guidance Document', OECD Tourism Papers, 2013.

41. VisitScotland, 'Scotland Visitor survey 2015 & 2016 – motivations to visit extract', 2017.

42. European Commission, 'EU attitudes to tourism', 2017.

43. Scottish Tourism Alliance, 'Recovery of Scotland's tourism sector', 2022.

44. Kim YR, Liu A, Williams AM. 'Competitiveness in the visitor economy: A systematic literature review'. Tourism Economics. 28(3):817-842, 2021.

45. Henry Tsai, Haiyan Song & Kevin K. F. Wong 'Tourism And Hotel Competitiveness Research, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing', 26:5-6, 522-546.

46. VisitBritain, 'Great British Tourist Report', Jan – Dec 2019.

47. ONS, Jan - Dec 2019, Visits to Scotland by overseas residents, 2009 to 2019 - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk); International Tourism Performance in 2021

48. Visit Scotland, 'International Tourism Performance in 2021'.

49. The Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) is maintained by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and is a database of all registered enterprises operating in the UK i.e. enterprises that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE. It covers 99% of economic activity in the UK. Those excluded are small sole traders or partnerships with no employees and an annual turnover of less than the VAT threshold (£85,000 in 2022).

50. There were 18,725 self-catering premises on the valuation roll in January 2023, compared with 740 other holiday and short-stay accommodation units registered for VAT or PAYE. This variation will be explained by those businesses that are unregistered, however it should also be noted that the figures are not directly comparable as a single enterprise registered for VAT may operate from multiple premises on the valuation roll.

51. Many cities and municipal governments have arrangements with the large collaborative sharing platforms (such as Airbnb) to collect and remit tax directly to the tax authority on behalf of small accommodation providers.

52. Estimate is based on data published in the Business in Scotland 2022 publication.

53. World Economic Forum, 'How does VAT affect the behaviour of small companies?', 2015.