North Wales Council Pauses Tourist Tax Plans After Consultation Exposes Deep Opposition

Cyngor Gwynedd has put the brakes on its proposed visitor levy, citing the scale and intensity of feedback gathered during a public consultation that ran through the summer.

An update report presented to the council confirmed that the scheme, which would have seen overnight visitors to the county charged a nightly fee from October 2027, will not proceed to a decision this September as originally scheduled. Officers said there had not been sufficient time to properly work through the volume and complexity of responses received.

The report described the public mood at consultation events as “heated, challenging and opposing,” with strong and often conflicting views expressed by those who attended.

Consultation drew record response 

The council’s consultation period, which ran from May to July, was extended by 11 days at the request of the Gwynedd and Eryri 2035 Partnership. It went on to attract 6,856 responses in total — a figure officers said comfortably surpassed turnout for previous council consultations and dwarfed the response rates seen when neighbouring authorities canvassed opinion on similar schemes, with roughly 2,000 replies logged in Anglesey and 1,300 in Conwy.

Early analysis of the Gwynedd figures points to a county divided. Among residents, 48.7% backed the levy against 43.5% opposed. The picture was starkly different within the business community, where only 14.7% supported the proposal and 79.5% were against it. Visitors themselves were similarly unconvinced, with just 10.7% in favour and 79.9% opposed.

Taken together across all three groups — residents, businesses and visitors — 22.7% of respondents supported the levy, while 68.5% opposed it.

Council cites time pressure and weight of feedback 

Explaining the delay, the council said it was “not currently in a position to make a decision on the Gwynedd visitor levy proposal,” pointing to the extended consultation window, the unexpectedly high response volume, and the breadth of concerns raised by participants.

The authority had been working toward submitting its proposal to the Welsh Revenue Authority this month, with a view to beginning collection of the charge from 1 October 2027.

What the levy would have charged 

Under the shelved plans, visitors staying in hostels, shared accommodation or on campsites would have paid 75p plus VAT per person, per night. A higher rate of £1.30 plus VAT per person, per night was proposed for most other forms of accommodation.

Certain groups would have been exempt, including under-18s, guests booked in for stays exceeding 31 consecutive nights, and people placed in emergency or temporary accommodation by a local authority.

Part of a wider shift across Britain 

Gwynedd’s proposal follows legislation passed by the Senedd in July 2025 that gave Welsh councils the power to introduce an overnight visitor charge.

The move to delay comes shortly after separate plans were confirmed by Prime Minister Andy Burnham to hand mayors across England equivalent powers to introduce their own overnight visitor levies — a development that has intensified debate across the UK hospitality sector about the cumulative cost of such charges to operators and travellers alike.