New visitor levy will not be delivered this term - Inder
Visitors to the island will avoid a new tax for at least one more summer.
Economic Development president Neil Inder told the States yesterday that plans for a new visitor levy were still being progressed, but had been delayed.
Arguments for and against a levy, which could raise up to £2m. a year, will now have to be handed to the next States.
‘We are under States resolution and I’ve committed to looking at it. I understand we’ve got a paper coming to the committee in the next month or so. But it won’t be delivered this term,’ said Deputy Inder.
A visitor levy was one of only a handful of ideas to raise additional revenue which survived numerous tax and spending debates in the first three years of the current States term.
Economic Development told the States as recently as September that it was on course to establish a levy for the 2025 season.
The committee has been split on the idea, with Deputy Inder opposed, but his tourism lead, Deputy Simon Vermeulen, in favour.
‘We have got a tourism economy which is still recovering,’ said Deputy Inder yesterday.
‘Visitor levies have actually been used to stop tourists going into destinations.
‘I think it’s a very, very bad idea given where we are right now. I would advise any future president not to do this now. This will directly impact on what is a recovering economy. I personally would not be charging, but I lost that vote and that is the States resolution.’
The Tourism Management Board and the Guernsey Hospitality Association have both previously backed a visitor levy if the receipts could be invested back into the tourism industry.
The association even called on Deputy Inder to resign 18 months ago when Economic Development approached the industry for its views on a tax on tourists, which it said it had already put forward itself in 2021.
Deputy Inder reminded the Assembly yesterday that the original idea supported by the States included the receipts going into general revenue rather than being ring-fenced for tourism.
‘It’s a very bad idea and it won’t build airports or Emas at airports,’ he said.
