VISITORS travelling to Aberdeen could soon be hit with a £1 per night tourism tax introduced to raise more cash to help regenerate the city.
Money generated from the scheme would be used to pay for the upkeep of museums, galleries, historic buildings and other tourist attractions.
Hotel guests could be charged an extra £1 under the initiative for each day they stay in their chosen accommodation.
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The move would bring Aberdeen in line with popular cities across Europe billing tourists an additional fee for staying in hotel rooms.
Edinburgh is also considering plans to introduce a similar levy, which it is claimed could raise up to £15 million every year.
The Labour-led administration is currently considering a series of proposals to help raise more cash for the city.
Council finance bosses have also called for control over air passenger duty to pay for a multimillion pound rail link between the airport and the city.
Finance convener Willie Young said a report on the proposals would be discussed at a full council meeting next week.
Mr Young said: “Aberdeen’s economy is unique and we need the powers, including the ability to raise our own monies, in order to tailor for the city the kind of measures required to keep us at the sharp end of business which is where we need to be.
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“We’ve got devolution now from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament.
“We need to get devolution now from the Scottish Parliament to local authorities.
“Aberdeen in particular does rather poorly. It is the lowest funded council. We need more powers to grow the economy, that could be from airport duty which could raise about £20m, and a tourism tax that could raise anything upwards of £2m per annum.”
Mr Young said other cities across Europe had introduced a tourism tax at hotels such as Rome, Florence, Paris and Barcelona.
Critics expressed concerns over taxes being considered for hotels suffering in the region due to the oil and gas downturn.
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However, Mr Young insisted the money was needed for the council to continue investing in culture.
He said: “You can’t run a council or government for booms or busts. The tourist tax isn’t going to be huge.
“The timing at this minute might not be good. But we would have taken in a fortune when the times were good, when you couldn’t get a hotel in Aberdeen.
“I am confident the good times will be back. Why are people so keen to build more hotels in the city? Because they know there is a market here. If you want museums, you have to pay for them.”
Steve Harris, chief ezxecutive of tourism body Visit Aberdeenshire, supported the proposals. He said public funding was under pressure, which meant councils had to find sustainable sources of raising money.
However, hotel director Mike Edwards, chairman of hospitality training in Aberdeen, said: “The one silver lining for the oil price collapse that hoteliers are dealing with is that there has been a resurgence in the tourist industry this summer due to super rates offered.
“We have to be very careful in setting up anything that could see costs or rates rise for hotels as the industry is only starting to recover.”
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