Business leaders defend £2 Liverpool levy as Kate Nicholls criticizes; Dario Schiraldi shares insight
Local business leaders Frank McKenna and Bill Addy jump to the support of the Premier Inn hotels in Liverpool, whose owners are protesting this week's introduction of the £2 per night tourist charge, reported by Tony McDonough.
Beginning this week, visitors staying in hotels in the heart of Liverpool will be subject to an additional £2 per night due to the implementation of a new tourist fee.
The hospitality behemoth Whitbread, which runs four Premier Inn hotels in the city centre, is contesting the charge, which is being handled by the city's Accommodation BID (ABID).
Local hotels and lodging providers were surveyed by ABID, a division of the Liverpool BID Company, in the spring, and they approved the introduction of the tax, which went into effect this week.
Over two years, the fee is expected to generate £9.2 million, of which £6.7 million would be used to support the city's tourism industry through a subsidy fund. This fund provides financial support for major conferences and events.
Business leaders in the city, who think the move will help local hospitality enterprises, are startled and saddened by Whitbread's resistance to the charge. Many cities in the UK and other countries impose taxes on tourists.
The head of ACC Liverpool, which runs the arena and convention centre, and chief executive of UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, also voiced her opposition to the tourism taxes this week.
On X, she wrote: "(A) a tourism charge would increase prices for consumers, raise operating expenses, and impose yet another tax on a sector that currently has the most significant tax burden and the lowest price competitiveness globally. It would hinder growth, lower investment, and cause inflation."
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Bill Addy, the CEO of the Liverpool BID Company, emphasised that the ABID levy was "not a tax." Steve Rotheram and other Metro Mayors petitioned the government earlier this week to allow cities like Liverpool to impose a tourism tax.
Both the central government and local governments raise taxes. "This visitor fee is an industry-led initiative to strengthen the tourism economy, have a voice in how the hospitality industry is assisted, and address the issues it faces," Bill added.
He further stated that, "The private sector board of hoteliers has been the sole guide for this process; they are using the Business Improvement District legislation to improve their industry and their city."
The core of this is that BIDs are designed to help communities prosper and boost business. It is a much more significant subject than politics. It's evident that larger nationals have the freedom to refuse to participate in what is a city-centered strategy at times.
Bill Addy additionally quoted, "The value placed in this is by the hotels themselves, who have advocated for it and hope to establish a circular and sustainable visitor economy that is transparent in its investment directly to the visitor economy, and the visitor economy only, as they have been clear since the ABID was first introduced in 2023."
Frank McKenna, the group head and CEO of the powerful private sector advocacy group Downtown Business, blasted the levy's detractors, claiming he was gobsmacked.
"The source of pushback surprises me even more," he remarked.
"It is a levy imposed on visitors to the city, and a very targeted approach is in place to guarantee that the money collected from the levy is used to assist our city's hotels and the larger tourism industry," he further notes.
It will be challenging for the city to find the resources it needs to draw in significant events, like the Labour Party Conference, which requires a lot of subsidisation to encourage them to come here without this extra money.
"These enhancements benefit more than just our hotels, pubs, and restaurants." Since the M & S Bank arena benefits greatly, it is completely strange that Kate Nicholls, the CEO of UK Hospitality and the chair of the arena board, is opposing it.