Before the introduction of UK tourist taxes, a falling Pound would make the UK a bargain holiday destination. Your foreign friends could finally afford a West End hotel without selling a kidney. British families might even feel better about holidaying at home because Europe looks more expensive.
But that fragile advantage is disappearing very quickly. There’s a new tourist tax UK mayors are itching to introduce, rising UK tourist taxes in cities like Liverpool, year-on-year hikes in Air Passenger Duty, extra ETA fees just to enter the country, and higher airline costs driven by CO2 and fuel policies. Whatever saving the weak Pound offers can be swallowed before you have even checked in.
This is the story of how the UK government’s latest “holiday tax” plan risks making Britain a less attractive place to visit. And that goes for overseas tourists and people who just want a budget friendly staycation.
What is the new UK tourist tax actually about?
Despite the headlines, there is still no single, nationwide “tourist tax UK” that every visitor automatically pays. However, the government wants to give mayors in England the legal power to introduce a visitor levy on overnight stays in their regions. This will be a formal UK tourist tax in all but name.
The idea is simple enough:
- If you stay in a hotel, B&B, guest house, holiday park or short-term let, you pay an extra nightly fee on top of your room rate.
- Local leaders can then spend the money on “transport, infrastructure and the visitor economy” – everything from street cleaning to big events.
- Ministers insist any UK tourist taxes should be “modest” and in line with similar charges in places like Paris or Milan.
Nice theory. The problem is how quickly those “modest” numbers add up in the real world.
Tourism industry bosses warn that a typical two-week family holiday in England could easily cost £100 or more extra, just in new tourist tax. For families already feeling priced out of travel, that is not a rounding error. It’s the difference between a week at the seaside and not going at all.
Local UK tourist taxes: Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and beyond
While Westminster is still consulting and speech-making, some cities have decided not to wait. There are already UK tourist taxes operating in different guises – and they give us a good idea of what’s coming.
Liverpool: £2 per room, per night – and growing ambition
Liverpool has a £2 per room, per night “City Visitor Charge” on many hotels and serviced apartments. The charge is collected on arrival or departure.
- It is expected to raise around £9.2 million over two years, used mainly to promote the city and support events.
- Local leaders have welcomed new powers to turn this into an overnight accommodation levy across the whole Liverpool City Region from 2027. This could potentially covering short-term lets like Airbnb too.
So today’s “business improvement” fee is tomorrow’s hard-wired tourist tax UK.
Yes, we paid the levy on our recent stays at The Hard Days Night and White Star Line hotels in Liverpool.
Manchester: from “voluntary” levy to “proper” tax
Greater Manchester already has a £1 per room, per night charge on many city-centre hotels. Officially it is not a tax – until you ask the receptionist to take it off your bill at check-out…
Mayor Andy Burnham has been clear he would prefer a mandatory city-wide tourist tax, similar to continental Europe, once the powers exist.
Edinburgh and Scotland: the 5% visitor levy
Scotland has gone further. Edinburgh will introduce a legal 5% visitor levy on paid overnight stays from July 2026:
- Applied to most paid accommodation: hotels, B&Bs, self-catering flats, hostels and holiday lets.
- Charged for up to five nights per stay.
- Expected to raise tens of millions per year for the city.
On an already eye-watering Festival hotel bill, that 5% will not go unnoticed.
Wales also has legislation in the pipeline to let councils introduce a national visitor levy from around 2027. They suggest capping the levy at just over £1 per person per night.
Put these trends together and you get a clear direction of travel:
- Local UK tourist taxes are here already (Liverpool, Manchester).
- Legal visitor levies are locked in (Edinburgh) or coming (Wales, likely English cities from 2026 onwards).
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Air Passenger Duty: the UK’s invisible departure tax keeps climbing
Hotel levies are only half the story. The UK also has Air Passenger Duty (APD) – a tax most travellers never see, because it is baked invisibly into the ticket price.
Some uncomfortable basics:
- APD is charged on every passenger departing a UK airport, with higher rates for longer flights and premium cabins.
- The UK’s APD is among the highest aviation taxes in the world.
- It raised around £3.6 billion in 2019, making it the government’s main tool for taxing flying.
In the last couple of Budgets, APD has quietly ratcheted up:
- From April 2024, Band B and C economy (most long-haul routes) went up again. Band A domestic/short-haul in economy rose to £7 per flight.
- For 2025–26, APD will increase in line with RPI. Band B economy moves to around £90 and Band C to around £94. There are even steeper rises in premium cabins and for private jets.
For a family of four flying long-haul in economy, APD alone can easily add £360–£400 to the cost of getting to or from the UK – before you have paid a penny of hotel tax, airport parking or luggage fees.
The Treasury insists APD is about “fairness” rather than the environment, but it has the same effect at the booking stage: it makes flights to and from the UK noticeably more expensive than comparable journeys via lower-tax hubs.
ETA: paying to enter the UK – before you even see a hotel bill
As if departure taxes were not enough, the UK is now rolling out its own Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) – a digital permission most visa-free visitors will need before they are allowed to board a flight to the UK.
Key facts:
- An ETA is required for visa-exempt foreign nationals visiting or transiting the UK for short stays (up to six months in most cases). This includes European, US, Canadian and many other travellers.
- The ETA costs £10–£16 per person, depending on when you apply, with the standard fee confirmed at £16 from April 2025.
- It is valid for multiple trips over two years, or until the passport expires, whichever is sooner.
On paper, £10–£16 does not sound like much. But remember:
- Every single traveller needs one – adults, children and even infants.
- A family of four coming to the UK for a week in London now needs to budget £64 just for ETAs. That’s on top of APD built into their flights and any local visitor levy charged by their hotel.
- Visitors who make only occasional trips get the worst value. They are effectively paying a per-trip surcharge to cross the UK border.
The Home Office describes the ETA as “a smooth, digital experience” that helps keep the border safe. The tourism industry reads it slightly differently: as another small but unavoidable line item that chips away at price competitiveness.
CO2, fuel and SAF: when climate policy meets your ticket price
A quick reality check:
- Airlines still pay no duty on jet fuel and airline tickets remain exempt from VAT in the UK and across most of Europe.
But that does not mean flying is tax-free. Instead of simple fuel duty, governments have built a maze of carbon pricing and “green” mandates that raise airline costs. These fees are buried in the total price you pay.
The big ones:
UK and EU Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS): airlines must buy allowances for the CO2 they emit on flights within Europe and on certain UK routes. Free allowances are being phased out. Analyses of the EU ETS show that airlines routinely pass on the cost of allowances to passengers, even when some permits were given for free. As coverage expands, this could add up to around €10 to a typical European return ticket – more on longer or less competitive routes.
UK Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) mandate: from 2025, the UK requires at least 2% of aviation fuel to be SAF, rising to 10% by 2030 and 22% by 2040. The government’s own cost–benefit analysis admits SAF is currently several times more expensive than fossil jet fuel. Industry bodies warn that UK and EU SAF mandates will add billions of dollars to airline fuel bills. Inevitably these levies will translate into higher fares for passengers.
None of these levies is stamped “tourist tax UK” on your receipt. But if you are an airline trying to make money on UK routes, the result is the same. Cost bases are heavier than that of rivals in less strict jurisdictions, forcing passengers to pay more for the privilege of flying.
Add it all up: is the UK becoming a less attractive place to travel?
Taken one by one, each measure looks small, technical, almost reasonable. A pound here, a couple of per cent there, a green levy nobly saving the planet. But travellers do not experience any of this in isolation. They experience the total bill.
A simplified example for a foreign family of four coming to the UK:
- APD embedded in long-haul economy flights: roughly £360–£400.
- ETA fees: £64 at £16 per person.
- Hotel-level visitor levy (for example, £2 per room per night for seven nights): £14 – or significantly more under a percentage-based scheme in peak season.
- Carbon-related costs passed through in ticket prices. Small now, but set to grow under ETS and SAF rules.
Suddenly the weak Pound is working hard just to offset a wall of UK-specific charges that other destinations either do not have, or apply more lightly.
For British families thinking about a staycation, the optics are not great either:
- You pay APD to leave the country even if you are only hopping to Europe.
- You are looking at steadily rising rail and coach fares, plus car fuel that certainly is taxed.
- Now you may soon face a tourist tax UK-side just for sleeping in a hotel or holiday park – the very places the government says it wants you to choose over flying.
No wonder hospitality bosses are warning that UK tourist taxes could deter people from choosing holidays in the UK, pushing them to spend their money overseas instead.
Used carefully and transparently, tourist levies can fund better services and more sustainable tourism. But as an easy revenue machine on top of existing taxes, they risk turning the “Great British holiday” into something only the well-off can afford.
For now, the best you can do as a traveller is to read the small print:
- Check if your chosen city already applies a visitor levy – or is about to.
- Factor APD and ETA costs into your comparison between UK and non-UK destinations.
- Watch how airlines describe “green” and “sustainability” surcharges on UK routes.
Until someone in government steps back and looks at the full picture, the weak Pound may be the only thing stopping the UK and pricing itself out of its own tourism market.
FAQ: UK tourist taxes and the new tourist tax UK plans
“UK tourist taxes” is an umbrella term for all the extra charges linked to tourism and travel in and out of the UK. That includes:
* Local visitor levies on overnight stays (for example Liverpool’s £2 per room per night, Edinburgh’s upcoming 5% levy).
* The national Air Passenger Duty (APD) charged on every passenger leaving a UK airport.
* The cost of a UK ETA for visa-free visitors.
* Climate-related costs passed on via tickets, like ETS carbon allowances and expensive Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
Individually they may look small; together they can have a serious impact on your final holiday price.
The government plans to give mayors in England new powers to introduce a visitor levy on overnight stays in their regions.
* It would apply to hotels, guest houses, B&Bs, holiday lets and similar accommodation.
* Mayors would set the rate locally – either a flat fee per night or a percentage of the room cost.
* The revenue would be ring-fenced for local priorities such as transport, infrastructure and tourism services.
There is no confirmed start date yet, but the first English city levies could appear this year.
Right now, elements of a tourist tax UK-wide are already in place:
* Liverpool: £2 per room, per night “City Visitor Charge” in the city centre, raising millions for events and marketing.
* Manchester: £1 per room, per night “city visitor charge” in the central BID zone – effectively a local UK tourist tax in all but name.
* Edinburgh: from July 2026, a 5% legal visitor levy on most paid overnight stays, capped at five nights per visit.
Wales and other Scottish cities are expected to follow, and English regions will gain similar powers once legislation is implemented.
It depends on where you go and how long you stay, but examples used by industry groups and media reports suggest:
A two-week family holiday in England could see accommodation costs rise by £100 or more under typical levy assumptions.
In a worst-case scenario, a family of six on a budget four-night Blackpool break could see room costs almost double once a per-night tourism charge is added.
Remember – that is on top of APD on flights, ETA fees, and any extra climate-related surcharges airlines pass on.
The UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) is a digital permission most visa-free foreign visitors must obtain before travelling to the UK.
* The fee is £10 initially, rising to £16 for applications made from April 2025.
* Every traveller needs their own ETA – including children and infants.
* An ETA is valid for multiple trips over two years, or until your passport expires.
By April 2025, it will apply to all non-visa nationals, including most European, US, Canadian and Australian visitors.
Sometimes – but increasingly, not by much.
A weak Pound means overseas visitors get more pounds for their own currency. This is making hotels, meals and shopping cheaper in pure exchange-rate terms. But weak currency does not erase:
* Local visitor levies on every hotel night in cities like Liverpool or (soon) Edinburgh.
* APD on every departure from a UK airport, one of the highest such taxes globally.
* ETA fees payable for each visitor before they can even board a UK-bound flight.
* Climate-driven cost increases via ETS and SAF mandates, especially on European and UK routes.
For many travellers, those UK-specific costs more than nibble at the exchange-rate gain – they can devour it entirely, especially in peak season.
Technically, no. CO2 pricing and fuel mandates are sold as environmental policies, not tourism charges. But from a passenger’s perspective, they act in a very similar way to UK tourist taxes:
* They raise the cost of operating flights to and from the UK.
* Airlines typically pass those costs straight into ticket prices.
* Travellers then face higher fares on UK routes compared with flights involving countries with lighter environmental regimes.
So while you will not see “CO2 tax” printed next to “tourist tax UK” on your invoice, you will feel both in your pocket.
Probably not overnight – but they will influence where people go, how long they stay and how much they spend. Hospitality leaders warn that a poorly designed holiday tax could:
* Push families to shorten UK breaks or drop from two weeks to one.
* Make some visitors skip the UK entirely in favour of cheaper destinations with fewer add-on charges.
* Hit budget travellers, B&Bs and independent guest houses hardest, while wealthier visitors barely notice.
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