A levy on those visiting Wales would be “devastating” to the tourism industry, Express.co.uk has been told.
It comes as the Welsh government continue to discuss a potential charge that would be imposed on people visiting the country.
At present, only Scotland has approved a visitor levy, though from this year the UK is imposing a new system where visitors from the US, Europe, Australia and Canada will be required to apply for permission and pay to enter the country.
The tax being floated by the Senedd is entirely different, however, and would see tourists charged daily, as is common in many European countries.
While its proponents say it will raise much-needed funds, Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said it will “track down” economic activity in parts of Wales.
“Any sort of tax will be devastating to the tourism industry,” he said. “That’s not just us saying it, that’s the tourism operators saying it, too.
“It will make them uncompetitive to other parts of the tourism sector in the UK, and it will in effect track down economic activity in some parts of Wales because operators have indicated that they will close down their tourist activities because of a levy.”
While a tourist levy has been spoken about in Wales for years, it was only formally mentioned in the Senedd in 2022.
A paper published back then suggested the country may copy replicate countries abroad that charge visitors anything from £0.50 to £5 a night.
Wales is one of the UK’s hotspots, with almost 10 million people from other areas of the UK making overnight trips to the country in 2022, generating a sum of £1.9million, according to the latest available figures.
Around 680,000 people from overseas visited the country in the same period, down from 1,023,000 visits in 2019.
Tourism makes a significant contribution to the Welsh economy, and before the pandemic accounted for an estimated five percent of its total or £2.4billion. It also provided an estimated 161,000 jobs, a staggering 12.1 percent of all employment in Wales.
Mr Davies isn’t alone in the belief that any charge to these people will dissuade visitors. After the Senedd paper was released, UK Hospitality Cymru described the charge as “the wrong text at the wrong time”.
Llandudno Hospitality Association expressed similar concerns and noted that a levy could reduce competitiveness in Wales’ tourism sector.
Rhun ap Iorwerth, leader of Plaid Cymru, said bringing in a visitor levy could help to improve local facilities and reinvest money back into the sector.
“Bringing that levy in, that money in, can be spent on mitigating some of the negatives while at the same time investing in the tourist experience — it can only be a positive thing,” he said.
It could also be used to reopen many of Wales’ closed tourism information centres. For day visitors, the information centre is a lifeline, with a survey report published by the Senedd finding that people are “much more likely to request information” about local events, travel information, and transport at the centres during their stay.
This month, Natural Resources Wales (NRW), a Welsh government-sponsored body, began a study looking into the future of visitor centres across North Wales after identifying an “alarming trend” of closers across popular destinations around Snowdon and other nearby regions.
Many centres that visitors rely on are at risk, such as Bwlch Nant yr Arian, near Aberystwyth and Ynyslas Visitor Centre, between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth.
The NRW say spending cuts have prompted the closures and that it is trying to find out what specific cuts are responsible.
Mr ap Iorwerth said: “[The levy] could mean the reopening of tourist information centres, many of which have been lost because councils can’t afford to keep them open.”
