Leading venues and cultural institutions in Scotland's capital have backed the call for a new city tax, a tourism or visitor levy, to fund major infrastructure in the city as well as the annual festivals.

The group of venues, Edinburgh Cultural Venues (ECV) including the Filmhouse and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Festival and King's Theatres, National Museums, Queens Hall, Royal Lyceum and Traverse theatres, the Usher Hall and the National Galleries of Scotland have said in a joint statement that they support the visitor levy.

The subject of the levy - the introduction of which is far from certain, as it has yet to gain support from the Scottish Government - has come to the fore again this week after Julia Amour, the new director of Festivals Edinburgh, said Edinburgh should once again seriously consider the levy or tax.

The venues today backing the levy attract more than 6.2m visits to their venues during the course of each year bringing in £194m to Scotland’s economy and support 5,000 jobs.

A statement said that the venues are facing "significant budget cuts, on top of many years of standstill funding.

"Capital funding to maintain and improve these iconic venues remains challenging to secure.

"This adds to the challenges facing the festivals, which rely on many of these large arts venues as vital venues for their events."

Duncan Hendry, chair of Edinburgh Cultural Venues said: "It is the belief of all members in Edinburgh Cultural Venues that the cultural offer should be seen holistically and that additional financial support, whether raised through a visitor levy or other means, should be distributed across this essential infrastructure which underpins Edinburgh’s international reputation for culture.

"One of the desires behind creating this collective strategic and working group, Edinburgh Cultural Venues, was to develop ways of working effectively year round with the accommodation and tourism sectors in the city to build on the benefits both sectors can offer each other.”

Earlier this week John Donnelly, chief executive of Marketing Edinburgh, supported calls for a new charge or tax to help fund culture in the capital.

He said that the "status quo is untenable", the day after Ms Amour called for a public debate on a new tax or levy in the wake of a report warning of a looming "fiscal cliff" which endangers the continued success of the festivals.

Ms Amour said it was "reasonable to expect" the many businesses that benefit from the annual festivals to contribute towards them through a levy - likely a bed tax on hotel room charges.

Councillor Richard Lewis, culture convenor for the council, also supports a targeted levy to specifically support cultural activities in the city.

However, the Scottish Government is not backing plans for a specific city tax to fund the festivals, and has "no plans" for a levy.

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said recently it was "up to those who have proposed that to argue the case for it."

She said she would pay close attention to the issue but neither expressed enthusiasm for the idea back nor dismissed it.

A spokesman for VisitScotland, the tourism agency, said: "There are concerns that a tourism tax could hinder our tourism growth and damage one of this country’s most successful areas of economic activity.

"However, if a tourism tax were to be introduced in Edinburgh, VisitScotland would argue that the revenue raised should be reinvested in tourism, events and festivals."

The 'fiscal cliff,' estimated to represent a £10 million shortfall in coming years, is the phrase coined in the Thundering Hooves 2.0 report to describe the effect of declining public support for the dozen Edinburgh festivals.

Cllr Lewis, who noted Paris and many other cities already as a levy in place, said: "We are behind the times with this and we have to keep working with business to make the case for it and make it clear, and show, where the money would be going."

The City Deal being considered by the UK and Scottish Governments for Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, Scottish Borders and Fife includes a Tourism Visitor Levy in its submission.

It has previously been estimated that Edinburgh City Council could raise up to £10m a year by charging between £1 and £2 per hotel room each night.

Berlin has a city tax, as does Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Bruges, and Dubai and other cities.

Hamburg has a tourism tax on a sliding scale which, perhaps as in Edinburgh's case, is ringfenced for cultural funding.

Other cities have a VAT system.

A spokesman for the Edinburgh Hotels Association said: "As the only tourism segment singled out in the proposed Tourism/Bed Tax, Edinburgh’s hotels would resist any plans to impose this additional cost on their guests, especially while other forms of accommodation, restaurants, attractions and retailers, also closely linked to tourism, would not be included."