Council Leader Cammy Day comments in the Edinburgh Evening News today.
With this year’s summer festivals well underway, the familiar buzz is all around us and it’s great to hear audience numbers remain strong. The Fringe alone listed a record 3,919 productions this year – featuring performers from no fewer than 50 countries.
Bringing in £2.7 billion worth of visitor spend each year, creating and sustaining 37,000 jobs, our world-renowned festivals and wider year-round tourism industry is central to our local economy’s health.
Yet - contrary to popular belief - the economic impact of all of this tourism does not directly boost the income of the festivals. It isn’t recouped by those cultural organisations we rely on all year round to make Edinburgh the Capital of culture it has become. Nor does visitor spend directly come back to the Council, which must cope with the extra demand peak tourism places on the city, from pressure on accommodation to services like street cleaning and public safety.
That’s why, as the lowest funded Council in Scotland per capita, we have long called for the ability to raise extra income to reinvest in our city. I’m proud that we’ve successfully lobbied the Scottish Government to allow us and other local authorities the powers to introduce a visitor levy. And I’m pleased to say we now look set to trailblaze this new legislation and become the first place in the UK to launch a city-wide levy, as early as summer 2026.
This week Councillors will consider the detail of officers’ suggested scheme, which has been shaped by the thousands of views we’ve gathered over many years from residents, the tourism and hospitality industry and others. Based on this feedback, and in line with many other major European cities, the report suggests we consult on a scheme which asks accommodation providers to administer a 5% city charge on the cost of overnight accommodation up to a maximum stay of seven nights. We believe this is a fair price to pay to enjoy the best city in the world to visit – and fair on those performers and workers who visit for the whole season.
Whether it’s additional investment in sustainable transport, accommodation, infrastructure and public spaces or enhancing our culture, heritage, and events programmes, such a levy will help us raise £45-50 million a year in 2028/29. If our festivals continue on the same trajectory as now, the levy could raise over £6 million in August alone when it launches.
While supporting our tourism and hospitality sector, the benefits will be felt right across the capital. We can’t take Edinburgh’s incredible cultural offering and reputation as a fantastic place to visit for granted, and a visitor levy presents an innovative way of sustaining the sector and the city.