Launching immediately after the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 came into force – which grants Scottish councils the authority to introduce a levy on overnight stays within their regions – the council started a formal 12-week consultation on its draft visitor levy scheme.

Building on extensive engagement which has taken place over many years, views are encouraged on various aspects of Edinburgh’s latest draft scheme, including:

• The planned levy rate of 5% on overnight stays for a maximum of seven nights
• The types of accommodation that will be liable for the levy
• How the money raised should be used to improve the city
• Exemptions to the levy.

Further engagement will also take place, including public drop-ins, open sessions for businesses in the visitor economy industry and accommodation providers, as well as targeted meetings with various stakeholders and industry groups.

Councillors will consider all of the feedback from this consultation before deciding in early 2025 to adopt or amend the scheme, with the proposed levy set to take effect from 24 July 2026, or around this date, subject to council approval.

The public consultation is open now and will remain available until Sunday 15 December. To participate and make your voice heard, please visit the consultation website.

Council leader Cammy Day said: “With the potential to raise tens of millions of pounds a year once it’s established, a visitor levy for Edinburgh presents a huge opportunity for us to invest sustainably in maintaining and developing the things that make our city such a great place to visit – and live in – all year round.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for our city to harness its global visitor appeal. Funds raised could go towards supporting vital services such as keeping the city clean and green, preserving some of our incredible heritage sites as well as supporting businesses in the visitor economy industry.

“We already know from the huge amount of engagement we’ve previously carried out that the introduction of a levy has overwhelming support here in Edinburgh. All this engagement work has helped us to shape the scheme we have in front of us today and I’m grateful to the thousands of people who have been involved to date.

“We’ll be continuing to engage with industry, and stakeholders, in the coming weeks and months. Please make sure you engage with us and take this chance to have your final say.”

Responding to the launch of the consultation, Fiona Campbell, CEO of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, said: “City of Edinburgh Council must tread carefully with these plans. Alongside the upcoming consultation, we would expect a full economic impact assessment to accompany the proposals.

“It is not just operators or overseas visitors who will be impacted but ordinary Scots choosing to visit Edinburgh will be hit in the pocket too. The introduction of this levy runs the risk of damaging the competitiveness of our tourism market and price sensitive consumers may switch to cheaper destinations elsewhere in the UK or abroad.

“After being saddled with expensive and onerous short-term let regulations, the last thing small businesses need is an additional administrative burden through a visitor levy. The accumulative regulatory impact could cripple businesses at a time when recovery is precarious and we should be supporting them for a sustainable future.

“The early signs are far from encouraging as the council has almost doubled its estimated running costs and increased its set-up budget by a whopping 260%. It is also very concerning an even higher levy has been proposed than the 5% in the draft scheme and we would urge extreme caution against setting the levy at a level that could tip the balance towards this scheme having a detrimental impact to Edinburgh’s reputation as a leading destination.”