Tourism leaders from across Scarborough and Whitby will meet on Thursday to discuss the potential impact of a proposed overnight visitor levy on domestic holidaymakers.
Local tourism businesses will scrutinise the potential impact of a proposed overnight visitor levy at a special roundtable event on Thursday.
Scarborough and Whitby MP Alison Hume is bringing industry leaders together to discuss the charge, which would allow regional mayors to introduce a fee on overnight stays.
The Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, previously recommended a flat £1 per night charge before the Government confirmed built-in protections for low-budget options.
Ms Hume announced the talks following a visit to Haven's Blue Dolphin Holiday Park near Gristhorpe, where she met senior staff including Nick Cook and Giles Coots to explore the challenges facing the sector.
The Member of Parliament noted that while a levy might work well in cities such as York that attract large numbers of overseas visitors, coastal businesses are highly reliant on price-sensitive domestic tourism and family holidays.
Speaking about the financial pressures facing the area, Alison Hume said:
"I held a round table with hospitality businesses from across Scarborough and Whitby last week, and I'm holding one on the tourism levy.
It's quite sobering to hear from local businesses about how they're struggling and hearing stories of how the cost of living is affecting all of us, so we we scrape our money together to get a nice stay, but then we don't go out for coffee. We might go out and get fish and chips, but we won't sit in the restaurant and this is affecting our hospitality businesses and they're pushing for a reduction in VAT.
I'm feeding all that back to ministers, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what businesses tell me about the overnight visitor levy."
The proposed overnight charge is sparking calls for local revenue ring-fencing, ensuring coastal towns directly benefit from the fees.
Alison Hume said:
"There haven't been any final decisions made on the levy.
The government will legislate but the power sits in the hands of our mayor. And I represent a coastal community that has pockets of high deprivation, some of which are the worst in the country and I passionately believe that money that is raised here should be spent here, and I will continue to say that because we need the money spent here. We desperately need the money spent here."
Specific community groups and vulnerable holidaymakers could receive exemptions ahead of any formal implementation.
Alison Hume added:
"We love our tourists. We generally welcome them, we give them our parking spaces and we put up with lots of the other issues that come along with tourism. We must also benefit from it. It's fair and it wouldn't be fair for it to go into a pot, and for us not to see the lion's share, because let's face it, in Scarborough and Whitby, we are the jewels in the tourism crown of North Yorkshire.
Go ahead with York, I don't have a problem with a tourist levy in York. It's a city with lots of international visitors, but we have a huge amount of domestic tourism, we're very price sensitive.
And I also want to make sure that we get exemptions for scouts, guides, cubs and also people who are taking a break with a disabled loved one because we know that the holiday parks that provide that, they shouldn't be paying any kind of levy, so I'll be fighting on that."
During her visit to Blue Dolphin, Ms Hume praised the team behind the holiday park for creating jobs and investing in the area's future.
Before any firm decisions are taken on the visitor charge, she stressed the need for a serious discussion about its effect on visitor numbers, local businesses, and the affordability of family holidays on the Yorkshire Coast.
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