Argyll and Bute Visitor Levy - your voice matters

People in areas across Scotland are considering a visitor levy and we want people in Argyll and Bute to have the same chance to consider one for here.

Investment from a visitor levy, if one was introduced, could benefit local communities as well as visitors - as many services used by visitors are shared with residents.

We are therefore running a 12-week consultation from Thursday 16 January until Thursday 10 April 2025.

Please take the time to get the information you need between now and April, and get involved. 

You will find more information about a visitor levy on this website, and we will be providing regular updates via:

• our social media channels
• This website
• via our weekly news round-up
• Our new Visitor Levy subscription email update service
• A series of public face-to-face events and online seminars. We will announce further details about these soon.

If you have specific questions, you are welcome to contact us at abvl@argyll-bute.gov.uk 

Guidance on completing the survey is available here.

When you have read the guidance and are ready to complete the survey(s), please click the relevant link(s) below. You can complete as many of the surveys as are relevant to you.

• Privacy notice - Visitor Levy consultation

Business survey

Residents survey

Visitors survey

If you are unable to access the survey(s) online you can download printable versions here:

• Business survey (Microsoft Word)
• Residents survey (Microsoft Word)
• Visitors survey (Microsoft Word)

Alternatively, you can request a paper copy from our Customer Service Points and your local library, or by emailing abvl@argyll-bute.gov.uk .

Paper copies should be returned to:

Argyll and Bute Visitor Levy, Argyll and Bute Council, Kilmory, Lochgilphead, Argyll, PA31 8RT.

If you have followed all of the online prompts and still encounter difficulties in submitting a response to the survey please email abvl@argyll-bute.gov.uk .

What type of questions does the consultation ask?

Here are examples of the kind of topics covered in consultation questions:

• What services would people want income from a levy to be spent on if one was introduced?
• What support would tourism businesses like to help manage a levy?
• What rate should a levy be set at and should there be a cap to the number of nights a levy applies?
• For anyone against a levy, how else would they see the visitor economy being funded in the future?

How has public feedback shaped the formal consultation exercise?

Thanks to everyone who replied to the pre-consultation survey. You told us that there are many views on what communities would want levy income to be spent on, such as public toilets, roads and pathways improvements, improved facilities in parks and beaches and public transport. The formal consultation provides some ideas, and welcomes more, on how a visitor levy, if introduced, should be spent.

Some local businesses have voiced concerns about for example managing a levy if one was introduced. The consultation includes support for tourism businesses as an example of how levy income could be used, and asks businesses for ideas on what support they would want.

You can view the full report, draft scheme and impact assessments that went to Council on 20 December 2024 on the council website.