Business / Visitor entry fee a ‘no brainer’ if invested properly, tour guide says
The council has ruled out imposing a levy on overnight accommodation but a point of entry fee – especially for cruise visitors – has supporters
A LOCAL tour guide says the idea of a £5 fee for visitors entering Shetland is “no brainer” if it goes towards supporting tourism infrastructure.
Laurie Goodlad said investment would be particularly welcome in facilities for cruise ship tours, such as toilet provision and parking.
Shetland Tourism Association chair Amanda Hawick also said the group would support an entry fee if it went back into supporting tourism businesses and organisations.
The idea of a £5 entry fee for Orkney – which like Shetland has thousands of cruise passengers stepping ashore every year, in addition to usual holiday visitors arriving by boat or plane – was floated and discussed in a recent Guardian article.
Destination Orkney chair Martin Fleet was quoted as saying that a £5 fee for every visitor could raise around £2 million a year there.
It comes after Scotland’s island authorities decided against introducing a visitor levy on overnight accommodation, following consultation on the topic.
One possible levy idea is the point of entry, where visitors would pay a flat fee.
The Scottish Government has also consulted on the idea of a specific levy on the cruise ship sector.
With the idea of a general £5 entry fee floated for Orkney, Shetland News sought some views on whether that could be beneficial here too.
Goodlad, who is also a travel writer and itinerary planner as well as a tour guide, said she would be “absolutely all for it”, particularly for cruise visitors.
Well over 100 cruise ships call at Lerwick every year, while others may also access small ports such as Scalloway and the islands.
The season is growing, with today (5 November) seeing the arrival of the last cruise ship of the year.
In the case of Lerwick there are coaches ready to pick up cruise passengers to take them on tours around Shetland.
“I think there should be a charge particularly on cruise ships because working within it, I see where we have needs for better infrastructure,” Goodlad said.
She said infrastructure for independent visitors is “on the whole, pretty good” but can be lacking for coach parties such as cruise tours.
“You do have to take into account the damage that heavy footfall has on certain areas,” she said, “so I think if there was a charge that’s money that could be and should be ring-fenced specifically for building on the infrastructure.”
She said she has unfortunately had people on tours who have had “accidents” because they have not been able to access a toilet.
“It’s really difficult to find public toilets that you can park a big coach at,” Goodlad said.
She also pointed to Faroe where people pay money to, for example, walk on hiking paths which is then reinvested in the infrastructure.
Goodlad said “you could be strategic about it” and could enable tours to operate in places in Shetland which currently do not have adequate facilities.
Meanwhile Hawick said the Shetland tourism organisation stands with Orkney and Western Isles.
She described the overnight accommodation levy – which was ultimately ruled as having more risks than benefits – as “unfair”.
“If a £5 levy fee was to be considered from either options [point of entry or cruise] then we would welcome that wholeheartedly if all the proceeds go back into supporting tourism businesses and organisations to sustainable develop our islands for the better,” she said.
The overnight visitor levy is discretionary for local authorities in Scotland, so it was Shetland Islands Council (SIC) that had the final say in whether to implement it or not.
The aim of the overnight levy – which will be adopted in other parts of Scotland such as Edinburgh and Aberdeen – is to generate revenue to develop, support or sustain facilities and services which are substantially for, or used by, people visiting the area for leisure or business purposes.
Meanwhile the idea of a cruise levy has not sat too well with Lerwick Port Authority, which oversees the arrival of ships into the town.
Council leader Emma Macdonald said while the SIC has supported the idea of exploring what a point of entry levy looks like, “we have yet to see any details on this yet or make a decision as a council”.
“We are still awaiting the outcomes of the consultation on a cruise ship levy and again haven’t discussed that yet as a council,” she added.
“The recent work that was carried out exploring if a visitor levy made sense here gave us the information we needed to make a decision that it would not benefit our important tourism industry or give enough of a return that made it worthwhile I think we need to see the details around the potential point of entry levy including how it will be collected and who administers it.
“It’s definitely a discussion the council will want to have but we need all the details first.”
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