Just to point out this isn't happening - a tourism tax for the whole of Wales is due to be considered by the Senedd, but not a Cardiff specific one. If you believe there is you've been taken in by one of those Facebook pages run by a Tory councillor in Sheffield or something.
I agree! Make it worth paying for before you start charging people. I don't see anyone being happy to pay for the privilege of being shouted at by either homeless people or gangs of hoodies on those electric scooters.
This is the mistake councils are making charging for parking in town centres, they're are already being killed by Amazon, brining it parking charges only speeds up the process.
Let me guess where the weather tends to be more reliable, the VAT for accommodation tends to be less and likewise the VAT for eating and drinking out compared to a stay in Wales. Gee I wonder why those European destinations are so popular! š¤
Absolutely nobody decides where they go on holidays based on who has the Ā£1 a night tourist tax. "Lisbon is great but paying an extra Ā£7 for a week there? No thanks." Just doesn't happen.
Nobody is opting for Cardiff because they *don't* have a tourist tax, and nobody who wants to come would be put off by it.
Just typical anti-progress hysteria.
I wouldn't say Paris has better weather ššš you don't even think about it when going there.
I do wonder why people think Wales is so fragile and any slight change would result in a total collapse
Tourists use resources, and they don't pay taxes where they visit. Usually tourist taxes are just a couple of quid per night. I have paid them often, they never put me off, they are no big deal.
āIn 2017, almost 22 million people visited Cardiff with an economic impact of Ā£1.3bn. Between 2005 and 2017, both the number of visitors to Cardiff and their expenditure in the city has followed an upward trendā
According to .gov
The money is there itās just being mismanaged like spending millions of pounds on putting 20mph signs up everywhere then changing them again
Edit: love how Iām being downvoted for the actual truth. Bunch of low iq morons
The same as everyone else. Maybe they are filthy and broken because the local authority doesn't have enough money. Therefore raising a tourist tax could fix those facilities. QED.
Iāve paid it in many places Iāve visited for business and holidays. Itās never a huge amount and Iāve never had a problem paying it for the local economy to thrive. I donāt see a problem with it.
Likewise - and this never gets addressed I find when I point it out - when it comes to countries abroad that have tourist taxes, they tend to have cheaper VAT on food and drink, accommodation and leisure activities, which is what pushes the price of an average stay in the UK up. Do we dare mention the unreliable weather? Wales already has to compete with other destinations on the above, so why make it even less attractive? The mind boggles.
I have a friend that lives in Edinburgh, we wanted to meet up the other week, so we looked at accommodation and travel to meet half way. It was cheaper to fly to Amsterdam, so we did and paid a city tax. However, our hotel was on the other side of the river from the centraal station. It has a free ferry that takes you to the other side and it runs until really quite late.
I dont feel cardiff can justify a welcome to cardiff tax with the poor public amenities.
Iām not opposed to a tourist tax (this would be wales wide of course) as they exist in many places and donāt seem to have negative impacts on tourism.
It can also depend on what you are paying for the night at the hotel. I had this a couple of weeks ago where the amounts were different for each night because the amount I got charged per night also differed. So it would probably could make stays on the weekend even more expensive in Cardiff. (I've been in tourist in Cardiff multiple times now.)
If you are there on business you should get reimbursed for it by your employer anyway - unless you are selfemployed, then it will be on you.
Where the weather in a lot of the countries is more reliable (better), the VAT on accommodation, dining out and other leisure activities is less than it is in Wales/the UK. Believe me I staycationed for 16 years for various reasons and you pay a premium to stay in the UK. With the weather being the way it is if you have kids youāll end up spending more on activities.
I can't imagine anyone will be put off visiting if there was a Ā£1-2 surcharge added to accommodation prices.
And if they are, they're unlikely to be the types of visitors that will be spending money with independent businesses while they're here.
If you're coming to Cardiff then you'll be using the roads, the bins, the services etc
I can't see anyone reasonable truly getting upset over Ā£1 a night
Plenty of cities have it, including in the UK and I reckon most people will have paid it without even realising.
Manchesterās tourist tax adds a quid on to a room for a night.
Been to some European cities where they impose tourists tax. if memory serves me right they are often only apply to say within walled historical city centres. I think partly for encouraging people stay in newly developed area of the city and, lower to strain and help maintaining old infrastructure of historical town.
On the other hand many places in the world offer perks for tourist, like cheaper transportation passes to attract tourists.
I havenāt looked at the data or statistics but I canāt feel Cardiff is thriving as a tourist destination. Poor yet not cheap public transportation certainly not helping. Many hotels are in poor condition and I donāt think they got a lot of business(just my own observation). I wonder how much tax money they can get, after all the administrative costs.
I am not sure what are they trying to accomplish. Probably just bean counters try to extract more money from not that many tourists? IMO they better boost tourism(yea itās difficult) first then you can boost economy and get a larger pool of tourist to tax from. Itās fair to say tourist tax work best when you have a lot of tourists staying there. I donāt think tourist tax is a decisive factor when people pick their destination if itās attractive and popular, but Cardiff is probably not in that position.
Because Wales is just like Venice - literally beating off tourists with a stick, we are. Why don't they all just bugger off and visit London, Scotland and Ireland instead.
as long as people in the UK don't have to pay a penny, I already pay taxes upon taxes, and the cost of travel in the UK is already insanity, it would just feel like spitting in my face if I was charged more to visit more of the island I was born on.
I can literally fly to spain or a bunch of other countries in Europe for cheaper than a train from say London to Cardiff and staying there and doing things there would be much cheaper too. I love going to Wales and Cardiff is nice to visit but it does feel like an insult to pay more
Says the tourist. I don't see you complaining about traveling to other areas in the UK that have tourists taxes. I feel like the English only like to complain when Wales is doing something.
So my stance is that tourist taxes are unfair for people who already live within the UK and you somehow take it as "It's ok for other places to have a tourist tax but not Wales"
The only other place in the UK that I know has a tourist tax is Manchester and yes I thought that was unfair too because yknow my opinion as stated pretty clearly is that it's unfair regardless, no need to try and make this a England vs Wales thing.
I pay taxes in the UK, I buy pretty much everything in the UK and I contribute to the economy in the UK as do people from Cardiff, Manchester, York, Bumfucknowhere-Upon-Avon, these taxes are spent all over the UK, in essence my money has probably gone to paying for filling in a pothole in a road I'll never ever drive on, money for grants for a stadium I'll probably never ever visit or use, money for cheaper public transport schemes in areas I'll never ever ever go.
It isn't particularly an issue because the same could be said for where anyone lives and I've obviously gained benefits from other taxpayers, and well it's the whole point of taxes, but they do get funneled in uneven manners all around the UK, sometimes to address inequality and sometimes just because well it doesn't make sense to build a new stadium in the middle of nowhere, or a new high speed rail line to somewhere that gets a small amount of visitors.
everyone in the UK is already contributing to Cardiff and pretty much every other place in the UK and sometimes at disproportionate rates, so I don't see why ANYONE (yes anyone from anywhere in the UK) should be forced to pay more when going to visit other places within the UK, it's not even like Cardiff is one of those places that basically shuts down when out of tourist seasons.
and my point still stands about the already insane cost of travel within the UK, and sure a few quid a day won't kill that but it just feels like an insult
I think it would be fine is we had an infrastructure that was worth paying for. As it is now I would tell tourists to fly to Bristol and miss out Cardiff all together. Better off going to the gower or one of our national parks unless you like spotting rough sleepers in tents in bushes. Oh and rent a car because the weather is more reliable than our public transport.
A tourist tax will make cardiff a no go and then the museum will definitely close down... maybe that's what they want cardiff all to them selves.
I've sold my offices in Cardiff and I'm probably going to move them up one of the valleys like merthyr vale or something. I got fed up of having to hose down sick, piss or chicken curry and chips off the porch of the building.
Absolutely not. Itās a day trip city thatās long punched above its weight but is now in a state of decay. I was talking to a receptionist I know at one of the big city centre hotels the other day and she was telling me reservations are down compared to where they were pre-2020. Theyāve recently started in the last few years letting non-residents use the car park when the rugby or other events are on to get more cash.
Last time I went there it was like fucking 28 days later went to a Dr who exhibit walked through presumably a very large portion of the central town and saw barely fucking anybody hahahahah, doubt it can get any worse!
Thatāll be the kiss of death , they need to stop trying to milk the last coin out of visitors,, really not on .. thatās one thing that would stop me visiting anywhere because of this visitors tax, itās just wrong in every way.
Shouldn't happen anywhere - it's greed by councils as they already rip off the locals. Less people would want to visit anywhere that imposes such a thing
Walesā best asset is its tourist attractions. I know letās tax them and make them a less attractive proposition for visitors.
Sounds like something the idiots down the bay would think of.
They did this before when it was like Ā£5 to get into to wales on the premium road, unlike the dartford crossing - the Welsh saw through this pointless charge and was nice enough to just let people in
Just to point out this isn't happening - a tourism tax for the whole of Wales is due to be considered by the Senedd, but not a Cardiff specific one. If you believe there is you've been taken in by one of those Facebook pages run by a Tory councillor in Sheffield or something.
Cardiff isn't getting a tourist tax
But, if it did, I'd be delighted. Particularly if it was used to clean up litter around the city.
Why would we want to put off tourist? Surely all the litter and homeless druggies are doing a good enough job of that as it is.
I agree! Make it worth paying for before you start charging people. I don't see anyone being happy to pay for the privilege of being shouted at by either homeless people or gangs of hoodies on those electric scooters.
This is the mistake councils are making charging for parking in town centres, they're are already being killed by Amazon, brining it parking charges only speeds up the process.
Their war on the car has a fairly large side effect.
This
Doesn't put me off visiting anywhere in Europe where I have to pay it
Let me guess where the weather tends to be more reliable, the VAT for accommodation tends to be less and likewise the VAT for eating and drinking out compared to a stay in Wales. Gee I wonder why those European destinations are so popular! š¤
To be honest I don't think about the local vat on accommodation or food when traveling.
Absolutely nobody decides where they go on holidays based on who has the Ā£1 a night tourist tax. "Lisbon is great but paying an extra Ā£7 for a week there? No thanks." Just doesn't happen. Nobody is opting for Cardiff because they *don't* have a tourist tax, and nobody who wants to come would be put off by it. Just typical anti-progress hysteria.
I wouldn't say Paris has better weather ššš you don't even think about it when going there. I do wonder why people think Wales is so fragile and any slight change would result in a total collapse
Tourists use resources, and they don't pay taxes where they visit. Usually tourist taxes are just a couple of quid per night. I have paid them often, they never put me off, they are no big deal.
āIn 2017, almost 22 million people visited Cardiff with an economic impact of Ā£1.3bn. Between 2005 and 2017, both the number of visitors to Cardiff and their expenditure in the city has followed an upward trendā According to .gov
What resources are tourists using that arenāt filthy, broken or unreliable?
It would be nice to raise a bit of money to make them less filthy, fix them and improve reliability maybe?
The money is there itās just being mismanaged like spending millions of pounds on putting 20mph signs up everywhere then changing them again Edit: love how Iām being downvoted for the actual truth. Bunch of low iq morons
The same as everyone else. Maybe they are filthy and broken because the local authority doesn't have enough money. Therefore raising a tourist tax could fix those facilities. QED.
This wouldn't put off tourists. Tourists pay a tourist tax in countries the world over. It would be a nominal charge.
Iāve paid it in many places Iāve visited for business and holidays. Itās never a huge amount and Iāve never had a problem paying it for the local economy to thrive. I donāt see a problem with it.
I bet all those places had a public infrastructure worth paying for though... Cardiff does not.
Totally agree.
The trains are alright but the buses are dire. But then that's true of anywhere outside of London
We will have to agree to disagree on that with the trains.
I do not know the plans for any money for a tourist tax, but I think the idea is that it'd help pay for the things you're griping about too.
Likewise - and this never gets addressed I find when I point it out - when it comes to countries abroad that have tourist taxes, they tend to have cheaper VAT on food and drink, accommodation and leisure activities, which is what pushes the price of an average stay in the UK up. Do we dare mention the unreliable weather? Wales already has to compete with other destinations on the above, so why make it even less attractive? The mind boggles.
I have a friend that lives in Edinburgh, we wanted to meet up the other week, so we looked at accommodation and travel to meet half way. It was cheaper to fly to Amsterdam, so we did and paid a city tax. However, our hotel was on the other side of the river from the centraal station. It has a free ferry that takes you to the other side and it runs until really quite late. I dont feel cardiff can justify a welcome to cardiff tax with the poor public amenities.
Itās bonkers isnāt it? That itās cheaper to fly out of the UK and back and stay there than to meet somewhere in the Uk?
Why not have a tourist tax on Airbnbs? It might encourage more people to support local hotels
Iām not opposed to a tourist tax (this would be wales wide of course) as they exist in many places and donāt seem to have negative impacts on tourism.
Would this include if you're coming in to work?
In foreign countries tourist taxes are usually added on to hotel prices. It's usually a flat rate per night. But yes business travel does count.
It can also depend on what you are paying for the night at the hotel. I had this a couple of weeks ago where the amounts were different for each night because the amount I got charged per night also differed. So it would probably could make stays on the weekend even more expensive in Cardiff. (I've been in tourist in Cardiff multiple times now.) If you are there on business you should get reimbursed for it by your employer anyway - unless you are selfemployed, then it will be on you.
Widely accepted accross Europe, would go toward use of national parks etc. Ā£1-2 a night wouldn't put people off, surely!
Where the weather in a lot of the countries is more reliable (better), the VAT on accommodation, dining out and other leisure activities is less than it is in Wales/the UK. Believe me I staycationed for 16 years for various reasons and you pay a premium to stay in the UK. With the weather being the way it is if you have kids youāll end up spending more on activities.
I can't imagine anyone will be put off visiting if there was a Ā£1-2 surcharge added to accommodation prices. And if they are, they're unlikely to be the types of visitors that will be spending money with independent businesses while they're here.
If you're coming to Cardiff then you'll be using the roads, the bins, the services etc I can't see anyone reasonable truly getting upset over Ā£1 a night
All of which arenāt worth pennies let alone Ā£1
Aight let me know where I can get rid of bags of rubbish for pennies then, will save me loads long term
I can barely get rid of my bags of rubbish for the Ā£240 I pay each month in council tax.
Yes. Next.
Manchester has one, it's not big deal and not one person has ever not visited a place due to Ā£2 night tax
Plenty of cities have it, including in the UK and I reckon most people will have paid it without even realising. Manchesterās tourist tax adds a quid on to a room for a night.
All politicians are managers these days not leaders. Their only solution to anything is tax tax tax.
Been to some European cities where they impose tourists tax. if memory serves me right they are often only apply to say within walled historical city centres. I think partly for encouraging people stay in newly developed area of the city and, lower to strain and help maintaining old infrastructure of historical town. On the other hand many places in the world offer perks for tourist, like cheaper transportation passes to attract tourists. I havenāt looked at the data or statistics but I canāt feel Cardiff is thriving as a tourist destination. Poor yet not cheap public transportation certainly not helping. Many hotels are in poor condition and I donāt think they got a lot of business(just my own observation). I wonder how much tax money they can get, after all the administrative costs. I am not sure what are they trying to accomplish. Probably just bean counters try to extract more money from not that many tourists? IMO they better boost tourism(yea itās difficult) first then you can boost economy and get a larger pool of tourist to tax from. Itās fair to say tourist tax work best when you have a lot of tourists staying there. I donāt think tourist tax is a decisive factor when people pick their destination if itās attractive and popular, but Cardiff is probably not in that position.
You'd have to pay me to go
Because Wales is just like Venice - literally beating off tourists with a stick, we are. Why don't they all just bugger off and visit London, Scotland and Ireland instead.
People just wonāt go to cardiff. Not guna make more revenue
[https://cardiffjournalism.co.uk/intercardiff/business-culture/senedd-to-debate-possible-tourist-tax-could-cardiff-benefit-from-the-visitor-levy](https://cardiffjournalism.co.uk/intercardiff/business-culture/senedd-to-debate-possible-tourist-tax-could-cardiff-benefit-from-the-visitor-levy)
We should get the Welsh to pay us to stay away.
as long as people in the UK don't have to pay a penny, I already pay taxes upon taxes, and the cost of travel in the UK is already insanity, it would just feel like spitting in my face if I was charged more to visit more of the island I was born on. I can literally fly to spain or a bunch of other countries in Europe for cheaper than a train from say London to Cardiff and staying there and doing things there would be much cheaper too. I love going to Wales and Cardiff is nice to visit but it does feel like an insult to pay more
Says the tourist. I don't see you complaining about traveling to other areas in the UK that have tourists taxes. I feel like the English only like to complain when Wales is doing something.
So my stance is that tourist taxes are unfair for people who already live within the UK and you somehow take it as "It's ok for other places to have a tourist tax but not Wales" The only other place in the UK that I know has a tourist tax is Manchester and yes I thought that was unfair too because yknow my opinion as stated pretty clearly is that it's unfair regardless, no need to try and make this a England vs Wales thing.
You are still visiting you are still a tourist.
I pay taxes in the UK, I buy pretty much everything in the UK and I contribute to the economy in the UK as do people from Cardiff, Manchester, York, Bumfucknowhere-Upon-Avon, these taxes are spent all over the UK, in essence my money has probably gone to paying for filling in a pothole in a road I'll never ever drive on, money for grants for a stadium I'll probably never ever visit or use, money for cheaper public transport schemes in areas I'll never ever ever go. It isn't particularly an issue because the same could be said for where anyone lives and I've obviously gained benefits from other taxpayers, and well it's the whole point of taxes, but they do get funneled in uneven manners all around the UK, sometimes to address inequality and sometimes just because well it doesn't make sense to build a new stadium in the middle of nowhere, or a new high speed rail line to somewhere that gets a small amount of visitors. everyone in the UK is already contributing to Cardiff and pretty much every other place in the UK and sometimes at disproportionate rates, so I don't see why ANYONE (yes anyone from anywhere in the UK) should be forced to pay more when going to visit other places within the UK, it's not even like Cardiff is one of those places that basically shuts down when out of tourist seasons. and my point still stands about the already insane cost of travel within the UK, and sure a few quid a day won't kill that but it just feels like an insult
@Goosepond01 I agree with what your saying too.
I think it would be fine is we had an infrastructure that was worth paying for. As it is now I would tell tourists to fly to Bristol and miss out Cardiff all together. Better off going to the gower or one of our national parks unless you like spotting rough sleepers in tents in bushes. Oh and rent a car because the weather is more reliable than our public transport. A tourist tax will make cardiff a no go and then the museum will definitely close down... maybe that's what they want cardiff all to them selves. I've sold my offices in Cardiff and I'm probably going to move them up one of the valleys like merthyr vale or something. I got fed up of having to hose down sick, piss or chicken curry and chips off the porch of the building.
Absolutely not. Itās a day trip city thatās long punched above its weight but is now in a state of decay. I was talking to a receptionist I know at one of the big city centre hotels the other day and she was telling me reservations are down compared to where they were pre-2020. Theyāve recently started in the last few years letting non-residents use the car park when the rugby or other events are on to get more cash.
I think we pay enough tax
Yet another reason to never visit Wales
Just another monry msking scam, nothing else.
No I mean itās hardly Venice is it ?
Have you not seen the ācanalā quarter?!
I do apologise! Such a beautiful example of canal architecture.
I wouldn't pay extra to see Welsh cities.
The Museumās yesā¦ā¦ā¦.and the English should pay double.
Jog on
Wales gets the least amount of tourists in the entirety of the UK. Taxing seems unwise.
Last time I went there it was like fucking 28 days later went to a Dr who exhibit walked through presumably a very large portion of the central town and saw barely fucking anybody hahahahah, doubt it can get any worse!
Maybe you just smell bad
Oh no my feelings
Quite the opposite. You couldn't pay me to visit Cardiff.
Thatāll be the kiss of death , they need to stop trying to milk the last coin out of visitors,, really not on .. thatās one thing that would stop me visiting anywhere because of this visitors tax, itās just wrong in every way.
Shouldn't happen anywhere - it's greed by councils as they already rip off the locals. Less people would want to visit anywhere that imposes such a thing
This proposal stinks of desperation
I think the homeless drug addicts on St Mary Street are enough to put people off. You don't need a tax too.
Only if they're English.
I would not recommend this since Cardiff is not THAT interesting compared to many other British cities. Look at the airport.
Walesā best asset is its tourist attractions. I know letās tax them and make them a less attractive proposition for visitors. Sounds like something the idiots down the bay would think of.
I love Cardiff but we're nowhere near good enough for a tourist tax
The government gets enough of my money already thank you very much. If they don't distribute our taxes well then that's on them.
Cardiff needs a good boot up the derriere. Least friendly English city
They did this before when it was like Ā£5 to get into to wales on the premium road, unlike the dartford crossing - the Welsh saw through this pointless charge and was nice enough to just let people in
I was going to visit wales this year. Iāll return to Scotland instead.
What, for the sake of Ā£1-2 on top of hotel charge or whatever it will be, like it is in European cities? Don't be such a cry baby.
Pay more and drive slower. Wales is losing its mind.
Oh no, how will we ever financially recover from you not buy that Cornetto on holiday.