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Is it Goodbye to Tourism Taxes?

In 2004, Sir Michael Lyons was asked by the Deputy Prime Minister to conduct an inquiry that would make recommendations for reform of council tax in England. In 2005, the Lyons Inquiry was extended to further consider the ‘whole future role and function of local government’ (Lyons, 2007, p. 1). The significance of this extension to English tourism is that Lyons, recognising funding pressures on local authorities, floated the possible introduction of local tourist taxes as a mechanism for raising additional funds. The problem local authorities face is that tourism marketing requires, in most cases, a great deal of money. Across the globe, many destinations have attempted to support marketing budgets through monies raised from differential tourism taxes. In England, as ‘Air Passenger Duty’ (introduced in 1994) remains, the government has so far resisted any suggestion of introducing accommodation, or ‘bed’, taxes. However, Lyons stated that ‘Accommodation taxes have been deployed in a number of places around the world with varying degrees of success’ (Lyons, 2007, p. 31) and invited representations from organisations across the whole of the English tourism industry – including local authorities, regional development agencies, national interest groups, business organisations – and the general public, for their views on future tourist tax implementation at the local level.