Inaccurate figures are not appropriate to introduce tourist tax

Friday, September 14, 2018

Repeating the Culture and Tourism Secretary Fiona Hyslop’s reprimand of Cllr McVey in July, Mr Mackay utilized a written Parliamentary answer to reminiscent the SNP in Edinburgh that they “will not consider requests to implement a tourist tax unless the tourism and hospitality industry is involved from the outset and its long-term interests are fully recognised.” Mr Mackay went extra mile in disclosing that Ms Hyslop had met the Scottish Tourism Alliance on the very same day which told her the council had not approached them “in any substantive way to consider the probable longer-term impact of a tourist tax on Scotland’s visitor economy.” Certainly, this was also known to Labour’s council group leader Cammy Day and ex-Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale when they both weighed in this week to persevere the transient visitor tax should be initiated, given the question to Mr Mackay was from Labour MSP Monica Lennon.

 
Regardless of the answer of previous week, on Monday Cllr Day said the results of a summer research programme would be part of what he defined “a robust, industry-supported case”, when thanks to Mr Mackay and Ms Hyslop we know the STA’s position has not altered ever since the statement of July which greeted the SNP’s pledge not to give councils the authority to bring in the tax without the industry’s full involvement. The STA insisted that “Any change to this [Scottish Government] position should only be considered in the light of an objective and well-informed national, rather than local debate, following conduct of independent research, undertaken by a suitably experienced firm . . . and formal stakeholder consultation initiated by the Scottish Government.”

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