Liverpool; home of The Beatles, Stephen Graham, the Royal Albert Dock, and Scouse stew, is officially introducing an overnight tourist tax this June.
Per the BBC, this comes after a ballot initiated by Accommodation BID – representing 83 of the UK city’s hotels – confirmed that 59% of the establishments were in favour of the £2 charge concept.
Accommodation BID, which is managed by Liverpool BID Company, believes this will raise north of £9 million in the next two years, £6.7m of which will go back into Liverpool’s visitor economy.
Marcus Magee, chairman of Accommodation BID, described the ballot result as a “major step” in allowing the city’s hospitality industry to have an influence on decisions concerning the visitor economy.
Liverpool BIG Company’s chief executive Bill Addy went on to comment: “We have always said the industry should have their say on whether they want this levy to come in, as they are administering it.
“The evidence of other European cities suggests this model will translate overnight stays into major investment, so that we can convert that into world-leading and world-beating events.”
BBC Radio Merseyside spoke to several tourists about the citywide change, including a Brazilian gent named Joao Pedro Benedetti, who called this imminent cough-upper both “only small” and “only fair”.
Italian native Maria Fantin, whose son Lorenzo Cotrozzi lives in the area, claimed she was used to paying a little extra per night in most countries, so Liverpool’s couple of quid “wouldn’t put me off”.
“Most of the stuff here is free which is really cool,” she noted. “Abroad you have to pay a lot of money to get into the museum or the art gallery, so I think why not?”
Manchester became the first UK city to incorporate a tourist tax in 2023.