At the Business Tourism Conference recently, Rick Antonson of Tourism Vancouver was extolling the virtues of a bed tax. In the British context, bed taxes are anathema and so I appreciate that I am being provocative in considering the case for it.
Subsequent to Rick’s talk, I discussed bed taxes with a representative of an industry body representing small accommodation providers and his objections can be described as follows:
- It’s unfair - why tax accommodation providers and then use that money to benefit the whole tourism industry?
- It would be another nail in the coffin - prices are high enough and this will kill the industry as visitors will chose to go elsewhere; and
- It’s too bureaucratic - can you imagine a Bed and Breakfast owner struggling to deal with the tax implications of this?
Although I continue to keep an open mind, I am not yet convinced by these arguments and think that the benefits could outweigh disadvantages.
If it assumed that a bed tax is used to fund developments, initiatives and promotions that would otherwise have been funded by central government, I think the following advantages follow:
- The central marketing agency (bodies like Tourism Vancouver or VisitScotland) has a more defined stream of income. Funding for public sector bodies usually follows political imperatives and timetables - wouldn’t it be great if they followed industry needs instead?
- The central marketing body has a stake in making sure this works - if fewer visitors visit, the central marketing body suffers as a result. It therefore makes the body much more responsive to industries needs on a results basis.
Obviously, the bed tax process also lays the ground work for much more robust visitor data collection and statistics (as I believe has happened in Austria for example)
But in response to my friend’s original observations,I would say
- A bed tax indeed is collected by the accommodation providers and it benefits the entire area - but people rarely visit an area just so they can sleep! They come to you place because of the other things in the area and so you are all in it together.
- People still visit New York, Vancouver, New Orleans and many many other great destinations despite the imposition of a tax - if your area has value, visitors will come. If your area has little value, a bed tax will be a determining factor but, if this is the case, perhaps you are focusing on the wrong issue?
- It’s no more bureaucratic that any other tax you currently pay.
I appreciate that this is an emotive issue. No one likes paying tax and I’m sure there will be many that disagree with what I have written. Perhaps what’s needed is a change of terminology - from the antagonistic ‘bed tax’ through to things like ‘environmental levies’?
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 1:27 pm and is filed under National tourism strategy, Opinion, Public policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.