By William Coleman
The tourist chief for the Outer Hebrides has publically shunned the plans for a tax of motorhomes and caravans as “ill-advised”.
There has been widespread backlash against the idea of taxing tourist who travel to the Outer Hebrides with motorhomes and caravans. The tourism leaders have said that the idea is wholly unacceptable to suggest that we want to tax any of our visitors before they come here on holiday”
Last week the SNP MSP Alasdair Allan went to the Government and asked them to consider a “motorhome levy”. The proposal, should it go through, is to help locals to better handle the increased vehicle numbers that the island has seen recently. Mr. Allan explains that the number of motorhomes that visit the island has shot up dramatically in the last 10 years. Although this is great news for the island, the extra traffic has had a knock on effect. The ferries that bring across the tourist have become extremely congested and has caused some infrastructure problems.
Although it was explained by Mr. Allen that the tourists are more than welcome he has said that with the resources available they are not enough to provide suitable sites and lack the waste disposal points .
The concerns are quite clear and have been made public by the Outer Hebrides Tourism (OHT) who have said that the tourism industry they have brings in £2million per year to the local economy. The OTH conducted a study over this year’s summer that showed that visitors would spend an average of £500 per trip. This money would be spent on food, drinks, fuel, goods and meals throughout an average 7 day trip. OTH added that tourism contributes £50million to the economy and sustains over 1,000 businesses.
The body said: “It is an enormously successful industry and critical to the islands’ financial sustainability. We are renowned for our people, landscape, hospitality and the warmth of our welcome.
It is completely ill-advised for our MSP to suggest we impose a tax on these visitors – his proposal would put at risk an annual spend of £2million and the financial stability of our islands.
“Motorhome visitors are highly flexible in their holiday plans, so are most likely to choose another destination in the face of discriminatory taxes or levies.”
There are some real concerns following this announcement. Extra tax on tourists is something that would put someone off of visiting a location. But if it goes towards strengthening the sites and facilities available would that be so bad?
The alternatives would be to crowdfund it from local businesses who would more than likely not be overly keen on that. Should the latter be an option it may force local businesses to raise their prices which in turn would end up being a form of tax in its own right as visitors are having to spend more when visiting. Is there a way to do this without financially impacting the community and visitors?
