The NEN – North Edinburgh News

The UK’s first city-wide visitor levy scheme will officially apply to paid overnight stays in Edinburgh starts today – Friday 24 July 2026.

The ‘Tourist Tax’ levy is projected to raise up to £50 million a year to invest in sustaining, supporting and enhancing Edinburgh’s worldwide appeal as a place to visit and live.

A 5% fee will now apply to the cost of all paid overnight accommodation in Scotland’s capital city, capped at five nights in a row. The levy is charged at the same rate every day of the year.

The scheme was formally agreed in January 2025 and has applied to all advance bookings made since 1 October 2025 for stays taking place on or after 24 July 2026.

Councillors agreed the first full set of investment programmes using funding raised by the levy in February.

Worth over £90 million over the next three years, the initial programmes fall under three well-defined themes:

City Operations and Infrastructure;

Culture, Heritage and Events; and

Destination and Visitor Management.

The Council will receive the first levy receipts in October and November of this year.

Several ‘early win’ projects have already started, including:

• A £132,000 contribution towards Edinburgh’s Festival Carnival and Mardi Gras events, which took place over the weekend of 18/19 July, providing an early demonstration of the Council’s intent to reinvest the levy’s funds into experiences that everyone can enjoy, whether they are visitors or residents.
• Funding ten festival city ambassadors to help visitors find their way around the capital this summer, and work alongside the Council’s partners to make sure Edinburgh remains a vibrant and inclusive place.
• Partnering with Police Scotland to create a City Centre Policing Unit, increasing public safety in the city centre and freeing up existing resource for frontline officers to be more present across other areas of the city.

Other key initiatives to be delivered in the next three years include, but are not limited to:

• A £2m Participatory Budgeting (PB) programme to fund local neighbourhood projects in all 17 of the city’s electoral wards, chosen by residents via a new online voting portal, while also encouraging visitors to explore Edinburgh’s many hidden gems.
• Funding to ensure the city’s streets and open spaces are clean and kept to a high standard, including a £100,000 per year upgrade and replacement programme for bins in high footfall areas, £500,000 per annum to expand work to tackle graffiti through extra support for private businesses and £1.3m on additional operations services for the city centre (waste, cleansing, patrols).
• Ambitious projects to renew and restore principal areas of Edinburgh, including investments in town centre high streets, £3m for public realm improvements in Hunter Square and £2m and £2.5m respectively towards transforming the city’s key coastal visitor attractions at Cramond foreshore and Portobello Promenade.
• £5m contribution to restore Leith Theatre and create a year round culture and live music space, expanding cultural opportunity beyond the city centre.
• £3m towards transforming the iconic Old Royal High School into a world class, national centre for music open to all.
• £3.85m to speed up the setted streets renewal programme and £3m for new and upgraded public toilets to maintain Edinburgh’s streets, public spaces and public infrastructure to an accessible and world-class standard.
• Investing in premier parks across the city to create improved spaces where the highest footfall and impact on the environment is experienced – and increases to the parks repairs budgets, while doubling the number of park rangers across the city.
• Programmes to green the city with additional investment in planting, such as floral gateways, to improve the look and feel of the city’s green spaces as well as the overall visitor experience.

A full list of the projects set to be funded in the first three years of the scheme is available on the Visitor Levy section of the Council’s website.

In the run up to the levy’s formal introduction, the Council has been providing ongoing support to businesses in the visitor economy. This has included providing materials to help businesses communicate the scheme to their guests, summarising key information on how it’s paid and the benefits it will bring to the city.

Council Leader Jane Meagher said: “This is such an important moment for our city – and for our residents and visitors. It’s the result of a huge amount of work over many, many years and I am proud to be the first local authority in the UK to push ahead with a city-wide visitor levy scheme. We now have a unique opportunity to invest more in the things that make our city so special.

“We know that the city’s popularity comes at a cost through the pressure it puts on our services and on the people who live and work here all year round. This small new contribution from overnight visitors will help improve the services and public spaces we all depend on, while better managing the effects of tourism and major events.

The levy has also opened the door to exciting new projects right across the city – helping to make Edinburgh a cleaner, greener and more welcoming place. We’ll soon be able to invest more into our many parks and greenspaces, and bring much-loved cultural venues such as the Royal High School and Leith Theatre back into use for the first time in decades – and much more.

“We’ve always said this is a city-wide fund and spending decisions need to be taken with the whole city in mind – and we’re very grateful to Edinburgh’s businesses and residents for their constructive feedback and support throughout the process.

“I’m very aware of how busy the city’s accommodation providers are at this time of year and we’re continuing to do everything we can to support them as the scheme comes into effect. 

“This is a big opportunity for us all to work together and enhance Edinburgh’s position as one of the most popular visitor destinations in the world.”

Chair of the Edinburgh Visitor Levy Advisory Forum, Julie Ashworth said: “The Forum is here to continue to put forward the views of the city to ensure they are fairly and accurately represented as the investment projects begin to take shape.

“We all want Edinburgh to remain a world class destination in a way that works for everyone, and the levy is now ready to deliver transformative investment that will protect its unique heritage and support its future success.

“We’ve continued to work closely with Council officers to provide robust feedback on the investment projects and ensure the levy delivers real, visible improvements and supports both the visitor experience and everyday life for residents.

“From revitalised public spaces to better visitor infrastructure and experiences, we’re confident the levy can help Edinburgh stay welcoming, resilient and successful.”

ASSC Demands Fair, Transparent Implementation in Edinburgh

Edinburgh’s visitor levy will take effect from today (24th July), marking the start of what the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers (ASSC) is calling “the real test” for the policy. The launch of the levy comes as new figures confirm that the city is already one of the most expensive in Europe to visit, before the new tax is even added to the bill.

According to the Post Office Travel Money City Costs Barometer 2026, Edinburgh now ranks as the third most expensive city break destination in Europe, behind only Oslo and Copenhagen, and is the most expensive city on the continent for two nights’ accommodation [1]. The findings will add to concerns from the self-catering sector that the levy risks compounding an affordability problem that already sets Edinburgh apart due to its onerous short-term let licensing and planning regime.

While much of the tourism industry opposed the plans, with the ASSC remaining critical of the percentage model, the leading trade body says the focus must shift to implementation, ensuring it is implemented fairly, transparently and with the minimum possible burden on businesses. The Council must be laser-focused on the evidence through honest monitoring and adjusting the charge if the data shows unintended consequences.

From tomorrow, accommodation providers become responsible for collecting the levy – this adds administration, software changes, staff training, and compliance work to businesses that are often small and micro-enterprises.

The ASSC has repeatedly raised concerns that national guidance arrived too late for businesses to prepare with confidence, and that the National Digital Portal does not resolve VAT treatment, booking system compatibility or day-to-day guest communications.

Moreover, the ASSC emphasises that the levy is not simply a charge on overseas tourists. Around 70% of Scotland’s tourism comes from the domestic market, meaning the levy will also be paid by Scottish families, UK visitors, people attending weddings and funerals, those visiting friends and relatives, and people travelling for medical appointments.

The Association is urging the Council to judge the scheme’s success not by how much revenue it raises, but by its impact on visitor numbers, occupancy, spending, employment and Edinburgh’s overall competitiveness. It wants any levy income to fund additional investment in the visitor economy – not to replace existing council spending or fill funding gaps – with full transparency over how every pound is spent.

Fiona Campbell MBE, Chief Executive of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, commented: “Edinburgh already tops the table as one of the most expensive cities in Europe to stay in and that’s before a single pound of this levy has been charged.

“The real test isn’t the day the levy starts, it’s what happens next. Businesses will readily comply under difficult circumstances, but they need the Council to hold up their end of the bargain with clear guidance, honest monitoring of the evidence, and absolute transparency about where the money goes.

“Overall, we want to see a scheme that is fair, proportionate, transparent and evidence-led, one that supports the visitor economy rather than undermining the businesses that help make Edinburgh one of the world’s great destinations.”