Tourism board ‘broadly supports’ visitor tax

The Tourism Management Board (TMB) has said it would “broadly support” proposals by the Policy & Resources Committee (P&R) to implement a tourism tax.

Hannah Beacom, TMB chair, said she would be supportive as long as the funds went back into the tourism industry.

She said: “Whether that be directly in product development and funding or whether it would be invested in sustainability or our surroundings and natural beauty.”

Guernsey States treasurer and chief resources officer on P&R, Bethan Haines said further revenue raising measures would be brought before the States in “due course”.

Ms Beacom said she thought the tax “would need to be fairly modest so it doesn’t impact on people’s decision-making on whether they come here”.

TMB also raised concerns over the cost of collection outweighing the revenue generated by the levy.

One suggestion Ms Beacom proposed was collecting the revenue from tourists using an app, but admitted she was not aware of how much the technology would cost.

Another concern was the impact of the proposed goods and services tax (GST) alongside tourism tax.

“When it was first suggested and we were first supportive of it, of course, it wasn’t being suggested along with GST,” said Ms Beacom.

As a result, she questioned whether it would be “fair” to implement a tourism tax if people on the island were already contributing through GST.