Mass protests on Majorca show why Scotland's tourist industry needs a tourist tax – Stephen Jardine

On the Spanish island of Majorca last weekend, 15,000 protestors marched through the streets booing tourists and yelling at them to “go home”. Now that really is anti-tourist. Similar opposition exists in Ibiza, Venice and Amsterdam and the only way to avoid it here is to have a frank and open discussion about the pros and cons of mass tourism and how we can make it work for the people who live here.

This week, MSPs gave the formal go-ahead to a tourist tax which will allow local authorities to add an overnight visitor surcharge for paying guests. Councils want this to be extended to include cruise ship visitors so they don’t slip through a loophole and Edinburgh is likely to be one of the places to introduce it.

Skye congestion

After years of waiting, this tax is an important first step towards making sure tourism works for everyone. We’re lucky to be such an attractive country. Last year almost four million people from overseas visited Scotland, a record number and up almost 15 per cent from the year before Covid.

But in a country with a resident population of only 5.4 million, those numbers come with stresses and strains. Just look at congestion on Skye, parking on the NC500 or the refuse challenge in Edinburgh over the summer. All of that can be mitigated by the tourist tax.

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People are marching in Majorca because they feel tourism has been imposed on them rather than designed with them in mind. We need to learn the lessons and ensure the benefits here outweigh the disadvantages.

So the £20m to £30m raised from the levy must be ring-fenced and spent on maintaining and improving infrastructure and the environment. That means more street cleaning and bin emptying, removing graffiti and improving services. All this could be delivered by teams wearing “Funded By The Tourist Tax” uniforms, giving residents a sense of the benefits while showing visitors where their money goes.

From Bhutan to New Zealand

This is the approach in Paris where visitor numbers are expected to peak this summer because of the Olympics. But the French capital is not alone. Tourist fees exist from the mountains of Bhutan to the southern tip of New Zealand and nowhere is there any evidence that it puts people off.

Some in our tourist sector fear it could harm business but let’s get real, what’s being suggested here is a levy that will cost about the same as a cup of coffee. In Amsterdam, the rate is about to rise to 12.5 per cent of an overnight stay. That will make it the highest in Europe, yet the visitors keep coming.

And if a visitor is unwilling to pay a token charge to preserve and maintain a beautiful place in the face of soaring mass tourism, do we really want them here in the first place? We’re happy to pay what is required when we go to Prague, Rome or Lisbon, so why not here? If asking that makes anyone anti-tourism, then I’m guilty as charged.