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The MP for Scarborough and Whitby, Alison Hume, said the introduction of a visitor levy on overnight stays in the area “could potentially be the straw that breaks the camel’s back” for some businesses.
David Skaith, the elected mayor of the county, supported the introduction of a so-called tourist tax and noted that “the government’s legislation still needs to be finalised”.
Under the plans, mayors could introduce a charge for overnight accommodation, with Labor mayors proposing a levy of up to 5 per cent of overnight accommodation costs.
Speaking after a discussion with tourism experts and stakeholders from Scarborough and Whitby on Thursday, Ms Hume said it was essential that local voices were heard before a decision was made.
“Tourism is the lifeblood of Scarborough, Whitby and the surrounding villages, so it was important to bring together businesses and stakeholders from across the sector to have their views heard firsthand.
“It was a constructive, informative and extremely valuable discussion where people spoke openly and honestly.
“The overwhelming view was that the introduction of a levy on stays in our coastal communities during a cost of living crisis and at a time when businesses are under pressure from changing visitor behaviour, high utility bills, staff costs and VAT at 20 per cent, this levy could potentially be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
“Businesses want real and quantifiable answers about how a levy works in practice and what it could mean for their visitor numbers and trade.”
At a local council meeting on Wednesday, the MP reiterated that if the levy is introduced, the money raised locally should be earmarked for the area, while Mr Skaith said the tax revenue would be put into a collective fund.
“We love our tourists, don’t we? We generally welcome them, we give them our parking spaces and we deal with a lot of other issues that come with tourism. We have to take advantage of that too,” Ms Hume said.
“It’s fair, and it wouldn’t be fair for it to go into a pot and for us not to see the lion’s share, because let’s face it, in Scarborough and Whitby we are the jewels in North Yorkshire’s tourism crown.”
However, speaking at the annual Labor Party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, Mr Skaith ruled out the idea of storing funds in the areas in which they were raised.
“It has to be across the whole patch and the reason I say that is if you did it in every local area, you would limit your capacity to do the big scheme projects that we need to do, especially in our coastal areas,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
Conservative Whitby councilor Phil Trumper said: “It’s just another tax, in my opinion, and people in the hospitality industry have been in touch with me.
“So I think we’ve just got to stop that happening because it’s overburdening businesses. It’s going to create unemployment in towns like Whitby.”
The Labor mayor said he was “doing a lot of work with the community, with the hospitality sector, with the three local authorities and the public to see if it is being implemented for what we would like to see it being used for.”
Funds could be used to improve transport and help regenerate roads, the mayor suggested.
Mr Skaith said: “I know there’s obviously a lot of concern, particularly from the hospitality sector, and I’ve been meeting a lot with them over the last six to 12 months or so, and we’ll continue to do so now that the York St John Policy Lab report is out as well.
“We have the opportunity to raise a very small amount of money per night to have a large amount of money that we put into the region.”
The report by York St John University, commissioned by the Mayor, found that a £1 per night visitor levy on overnight stays in York and North Yorkshire could raise up to £26 million a year.
