‘It sounds like a good idea on paper’: Londoners react to tourist tax proposal

We ask Londoners how they’d feel about tourists paying a tax, like they do when visiting other cities around Europe.

Transcript

00:00The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has said he is happy to look into the possibility of

00:05a tourist tax in London hotels. It follows cross-party calls earlier this week for a

00:11small charge on visitors to the capital. The Mayor said his team would be examining the

00:16evidence from Manchester where similar charges have been introduced as well as other European

00:23cities. UK Hospitality, a trade body representing the sector, has said additional taxes would

00:29be extremely damaging.

00:30In theory, it sounds like a good idea, I think, thinking about it for 30 seconds. You just

00:37take account of it as part of your holiday, right? So you're kind of, yeah, you just see

00:43it as like an additional tax, I guess, as it is. So it doesn't bother me in other countries.

00:48And as long as people are aware of it, I guess, before they get here. But I'd love to know

00:52why. Why is he doing that just to make more money?

00:55Yeah, well, I think most tourists who come to London, it's kind of maybe a once in a

01:00lifetime thing. It's going to be expensive anyway, and they'll probably hardly notice

01:03a little bit extra, I'd say. Yeah, maybe to local councils, to like affordable housing.

01:08I mean, people do already pay for TfL when they're on it, though, do you know what I

01:12mean? So if it's just going towards the tubes, that feels a bit unfair because they're already

01:15paying for that when they get on it anyway, and if they're using it. But I guess if it's

01:19the day-to-day running and keeping things going, and even down to councils, individual

01:24councils, like getting rid of rubbish and getting rid of bottles of beer that are left

01:28outside when, I guess, tourists and people from London go on nights out, then that makes

01:32sense to me.

01:33Existing levies vary depending on the city and quality of accommodation. Visitors to

01:38Barcelona staying in a four-star hotel, for example, pay a charge of €4.95 per night

01:45as part of their bill, and in Paris would pay a levy of €8.13 per night. Venice will

01:51go a step further next year by introducing a €5 charge for day-trippers to the city.

01:56For more on this, head to londonworld.com.