Plans to grant regional mayors powers to introduce a tourist tax on overnight accommodation stays have triggered widespread concern across the hospitality industry.
The proposal comes as Office for National Statistics (ONS) data analysed by UHY Hacker Young show 692 hotel businesses have entered insolvency over the past five years, including 139 in the 12 months to July 2026.
In light of this, industry bodies warned that adding an extra levy during ongoing cost pressures could undermine economic growth and harm coastal regions that rely heavily on visitor spending.
An additional analysis from UKHospitality indicates a 5% charge across England could reduce gross domestic product by £2bn and put 30,000 jobs at risk.
Concerns have also been raised over compliance burdens and the potential lack of a statutory cap, which advisers say could create financial uncertainty for businesses operating across multiple local authorities.
Representatives from regional hotel groups urged local leaders to ensure any levy applies equally to short-term holiday lets and is directly reinvested into local transport and visitor infrastructure.
Accountancy experts noted that while destinations such as London and Edinburgh might absorb higher charges, setting levies between 1–5% could force price-sensitive domestic travellers to cut overall local spending or choose lower-cost accommodation options.
Paul Harper, commercial director of Daish’s Holidays, said: “Daish’s Holidays oppose plans to give mayors in England the power to introduce a tourist levy. While we understand the pressure on local services, adding another tax on customers during a cost‑of‑living squeeze is not supportable and risks undermining the chancellor’s ambition for ‘growth in every postcode’.”
Dee Corsi, chief executive of New West End Company, said: “Any Overnight Visitor Levy that is introduced must be proportionate, in line with global standard and reinvested back into the areas where it’s generated. Our members already invest millions a year keeping this district clean, safe and welcoming for visitors and we want to work with the government and the mayor of London to ensure the levy supports these endeavours.”
Pramod Shaw, deputy chair of the Bristol Hoteliers Association, said: “We are not opposed to investment in Bristol – quite the opposite; we love this city and are proud to represent it.
“Our industry has already absorbed significant financial pressures in recent years – soaring energy costs, increases in the National Living Wage and higher employer National Insurance contributions, which have all taken their toll.”
Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, said: “The timing of an overnight visitor levy is a real concern. With the night-time economy and hospitality sectors facing significant cost pressures and continuing fragility, the prospect of another layer of taxation comes at a particularly challenging moment.”
Martin Jones, head of hospitality and leisure at UHY Hacker Young, added: “The hotel industry has been hit by the recent increase in National Insurance Contributions and by continuous increases in the National Minimum Wage.”
Plans to grant regional mayors powers to introduce a tourist tax on overnight accommodation stays have triggered widespread concern across the hospitality industry.
The proposal comes as Office for National Statistics (ONS) data analysed by UHY Hacker Young show 692 hotel businesses have entered insolvency over the past five years, including 139 in the 12 months to July 2026.
In light of this, industry bodies warned that adding an extra levy during ongoing cost pressures could undermine economic growth and harm coastal regions that rely heavily on visitor spending.
An additional analysis from UKHospitality indicates a 5% charge across England could reduce gross domestic product by £2bn and put 30,000 jobs at risk.
Concerns have also been raised over compliance burdens and the potential lack of a statutory cap, which advisers say could create financial uncertainty for businesses operating across multiple local authorities.
Representatives from regional hotel groups urged local leaders to ensure any levy applies equally to short-term holiday lets and is directly reinvested into local transport and visitor infrastructure.
Accountancy experts noted that while destinations such as London and Edinburgh might absorb higher charges, setting levies between 1–5% could force price-sensitive domestic travellers to cut overall local spending or choose lower-cost accommodation options.
Paul Harper, commercial director of Daish’s Holidays, said: “Daish’s Holidays oppose plans to give mayors in England the power to introduce a tourist levy. While we understand the pressure on local services, adding another tax on customers during a cost‑of‑living squeeze is not supportable and risks undermining the chancellor’s ambition for ‘growth in every postcode’.”
Dee Corsi, chief executive of New West End Company, said: “Any Overnight Visitor Levy that is introduced must be proportionate, in line with global standard and reinvested back into the areas where it’s generated. Our members already invest millions a year keeping this district clean, safe and welcoming for visitors and we want to work with the government and the mayor of London to ensure the levy supports these endeavours.”
Pramod Shaw, deputy chair of the Bristol Hoteliers Association, said: “We are not opposed to investment in Bristol – quite the opposite; we love this city and are proud to represent it.
“Our industry has already absorbed significant financial pressures in recent years – soaring energy costs, increases in the National Living Wage and higher employer National Insurance contributions, which have all taken their toll.”
Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, said: “The timing of an overnight visitor levy is a real concern. With the night-time economy and hospitality sectors facing significant cost pressures and continuing fragility, the prospect of another layer of taxation comes at a particularly challenging moment.”
Martin Jones, head of hospitality and leisure at UHY Hacker Young, added: “The hotel industry has been hit by the recent increase in National Insurance Contributions and by continuous increases in the National Minimum Wage.”
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The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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