Moray Council today voted to start developing a Moray Visitor Levy Scheme (19th February 2025)

Moray Council today voted to start developing a Moray Visitor Levy Scheme. At a meeting of Full Council, councillors agreed:

• To note the provisions of the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 and the requirements for implementing a Visitor Levy (VL);
• approve the initiation of Stage 1 of the development process (forecasting, pre-consultation, preparation of draft outline proposal and Moray Tourism Strategy);
• approve the formation of a joint Member and cross-departmental Officer working group to manage the VL development process; and
• allocate £15,000 to commission specialist expertise to support the development process.

The proposed stages for establishing the VL are:

STAGE 1 – Develop the Outline Proposal based on:

1. Accurate Forecasting

2. Early Engagement/Pre-consultation feedback

3. Tourism Strategy (presented for approval at committee meeting and via Community Planning Partnership)

4. Council feedback on draft (presented at committee meeting).

STAGE 2 – Introduction of VL

5. Consultation on proposed Visitor Levy Scheme (12 weeks)

6. Implementation – minimum of 18 month.

On this timeline, they would expect the earliest the VL to come into force would be August 2027.

• The meeting papers are available to view here (Item 11)
• News release from Moray Council

Moray Council Leader, Cllr Kathleen Robertson: “While there is no decision within council to introduce a levy at the moment, the next step in the development of a visitor levy scheme for Moray is setting up a working group to oversee the development of the scheme proposal. While we don’t have the level of expertise in-house currently, we will bring that in to make sure any future scheme would work well and bring the most benefit to everyone in Moray. A future consultation will inform any decisions on whether or not to progress a visitor levy scheme in Moray. The earliest any levy would be in operation in Moray would be August 2027, so there will be plenty of opportunity over the next two years for locals, businesses and visitors to have their input considered for any scheme.”