Following a suggestion by Labour MP and shadow minister for London, Sadiq Khan to levy a ‘tourism contribution’ for London to generate income for the city from tourists,Ā Simon Kirby, MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven has written to the Leader of the Labour Party, Ed Milliband, asking him to rule out a smiliar Tourism Tax for Brighton & Hove.
While many cities in the world now operate a tourist tax of one sort or another many hoteliers in Brighton & Hove are warning of the folly of introducing such a tariff into Brighton & Hove.
Local hotelier and former chair of Tourism South East, Nick Head, said:
“Brighton and Hove derives 70% of our staying tourism customers from overseas; predominantly from Scandinavia, Benelux, Germany and France. In all these countries the VAT rate for B&B and Visitor Attractions is circa 6%. In the UK vat rate is 20% – some 14% higher which already makes us the most expensive holiday destination in Europe. To put an additional tax on visitors Ā may well be the deciding factor for people to spend their money elsewhere.”
Tourism is worth over a billion pounds a year to Brighton & Hove and supports many thousands of local jobs (over 13,000 full time equivalent jobs in the sector in the City).
According to labour market statistics there are 137,000 jobs in Brighton & Hove. Based on a recent Brighton and Hove City Council report, around 14% of these jobs are supported by tourism generated turnover.
Simon said:
“Tourism is worth over a billion pounds a year to Brighton & Hove and supports many thousands of local jobs.Ā Labourās proposal of a Tourism Tax would be an absolute disaster for the City, in particular a number of the LGBT businesses in the City which rely on visitors coming to the City.ā
We should be encouraging people to visit our fantastic city, to spend money with local businesses and to create local jobs and prosperity.
Labour’s Tourism Tax would drive visitors away and I have made that very clear to Mr Milliband in my letter.”
Warren Morgan, leader of Labour and Cooperative on Brighton & Hove Council responded.
He said:
“This is utter nonsense from Simon Kirby; there are no proposals for a tourist tax for Brighton and Hove from Labour, and indeed we’d oppose any such move by the Greens or Tories.Ā
“It is just an attempt by him to distract attention from the half a million people now reliant on foodbanks, the million workers now on “zero hour” contracts, and the fact that over the life of this Tory government people will be Ā£6,600 worse off.”
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