Elected Member Briefing - Early engagement on visitor levy scheme

About this Briefing Note

Report by: Serge Merone, Strategic Lead - Economy, Planning and Development

EMBN Number: 017-25 

Date: 30 January 2025

Subject: Early engagement on visitor levy scheme

Responsible Officer: Steve MacDonald, Economic Development Manager - Tourism, Culture and Place

Details

Purpose

To ensure all elected members are aware of proposals to begin early engagement as a first stage in considering development of a local Visitor Levy Scheme for Perth and Kinross.  

Briefing Information 

At next week's meeting of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee one of the reports up for consideration is about exploring the potential of a Visitor Levy Scheme for Perth and Kinross. Committee members will be asked to approve the start of early engagement on the possibility with local residents and businesses. 

Approving the early engagement process is not a decision to introduce a local Visitor Levy Scheme. However, it is a recommended first stage to inform the creation of a draft scheme to allow Council to make an informed decision on whether to implement on locally. 

The full report acknowledges that there have been reservations expressed, both locally and nationally, about the introduction of a Visitor Levy Scheme, and it is likely that the publication of the report and media/online coverage will lead to residents/businesses contacting individual elected members about the issue. That is why we wanted to ensure members not on the Economy and Infrastructure Committee are also aware of the report and can reassure constituents that no decision has been made about implementing a scheme. 

Between the early engagement process and the statutory consultation and implementation phases if Council does ultimately decide to implement a local scheme, the earliest any scheme would be introduced is Summer 2027. 

Full details of the early engagement process, factors to be considered, and the timeline of decision-making are included in the full report is available on the committee meeting page.