Visitors to Liverpool, UK, home to the Beatles and one of the world’s most valuable and popular football clubs, could find their stay in the historic port city comes with an extra charge, if plans to implement a City Visitor Charge are given the go-ahead.
The fee of £2 per night would come into force in the forthcoming summer season. Applicable from June 2025, it would be administered by hotels and accommodation providers who in turn would directly benefit from the additional funding raised, an anticipated £6 million a year, which would be ploughed back in to the city’s travel and tourism sector, authorities have said.
Visitor fees are in place or being considered in a range of UK destinations including some close to Liverpool, such as councils in Wales and Manchester.
Targeting overnight guests
Though visitor charges are being used in cities such as Venice, Italy, to deter tourists on the busiest days of the year, Bill Addy, CEO of Liverpool’s Accommodation Business Improvement District (BID), said in his view, those coming to Liverpool would not be dissuaded by the introduction of the charge, and that over time the city’s offer would become even more attractive thanks to the extra resources the fee would provide.
Unlike Venice’s charge however, which is aimed at daytrippers, Liverpool proposes to target those spending the night in the city. “We know that overnight guests spend more money in the city than day trippers so encouraging more overnight stays, through conferences or major events spanning several days, generates a greater income for the city, be that through hospitality, retail, cultural venues,” he said.
Liverpool attracts millions of tourists every year, and rightly so. Yet local people don’t always feel the benefits
— ACORN Liverpool (@AcornLiverpool) December 17, 2024
So that tourists can directly contribute to the city and its people, we're calling for a small tourism tax on overnight stays at hotels and holiday lets pic.twitter.com/kY55PljywW
Funds for street cleaning, marketing and subventions
Defending the proposal, Addy said it is not dissimilar to other visitor charging models already in place “across European cities, which work successfully and, if replicated in Liverpool, will translate overnight stays into major investment in attracting world leading and world beating events to the city.”
It is not only tourists and the tourism sector who would see the benefit of the money raised by the overnight fee. Services such as street cleaning would also be funded from the same pot, with 65% of the kitty reserved for a “subvention fund” and 21% going towards “destination marketing.”
Marcus Magee, chair of Liverpool’s Accommodation BID, described the vote on the measure as “an alteration ballot, which will ask the hotel industry to change the way we bring in funds. The change in the model is necessary to help the city bring in more events, and Liverpool to compete with neighbouring cities. We are in a competitive visitor economy and it is vital that Liverpool holds its own.”
