A SCOTTISH “cruise tax” could soon be calling into ports from Orkney to Greenock. With new powers proposed for local authorities to charge visitor levies, what might a tax look like, and what might it achieve?
The National 1 JuneSummer in the isles is cruise season. You can’t miss it.
Last year saw over 1000 ships and 1.2 million passengers calling into Scottish ports. An increase of almost 50 per cent on pre-pandemic arrivals, big ship arrivals are getting larger and more frequent.
Last May the 6000-passenger MSC Virtuoso became the largest ship to visit Shetland to date, doubling the population of Lerwick overnight.
The equivalent of twelve jumbo jets of tourists arriving at once on the harbour wall. It’s no wonder it feels like cruising has reached a high-water mark in some ports. Following the Visitor Levy Scotland Act, passed into law last year, a separate Cruise Levy is currently under review. Announced by the Scottish Greens in 2024, it was destined to be about more than just collecting revenue in local ports.
The big, white ships have become a totemic issue for the tourism industry. Travelling under flags of convenience – often under marine diesel power – they have come to represent over-tourism, unaccountability and harmful emissions. That said, in many places they are also a mainstay for local shops and businesses, making up over half of total arrivals in some ports. The cases both for and against cruise are as large and complex as the $70 billion global industry.
So, when a local cruise tax was floated, it was surprising to see degree of support form both sides of this argument.
If introduced Scotland would be the first part of the UK to have a cruise specific tax. Though there are plenty of overseas ports that have already introduced charges on the grounds of tackling environmental issues and problem tourism.
Some destinations like Amsterdam have gone as far as banning future ship arrivals – saying no economic gain can outweigh the “crowds and emissions”. The city will halve arrivals next year, closing its passenger cruise terminal by 2035. Others have used levies as a source of revenue for regional councils, which see tens of thousands of arrivals each summer and little direct return.
Earlier this year the Orkney Island Council came out in favour of a cruise ship levy. After welcoming a record 160,000 passengers via the cruise terminal in Kirkwall, a levy was seen as a way to address growing tourist numbers and over-stretched budgets.
“A cruise ship levy could allow local authorities to maintain essential services and infrastructure,” said council leader Heather Woodbridge.
Cruising remains a divisive issue, especially in the regions that feel the impacts most keenly — both positive and negative. Cruise taxes, on the other hand, have a far broader appeal.
This is not the first time a tax on Scottish tourist ships has been proposed. Cruising got special attention when a “discretionary visitor levy” was debated in 2019 and ultimately abandoned. The passing of the Visitor Levy Act and the return of cruising to the dock of public opinion are signs of a new momentum behind a specific tax on liners.
Given half of the UK’s growing 2 million-passenger cruise industry made a call at a Scottish port last year, the appeal of Scotland as a destination gives local authorities confidence in a levy’s viability.
However, unlike Edinburgh City cashing in on festival goers or a proposed Highlands B&B bed tax, a ship levy has the potential to be far more impactful. In the face of a poorly conceived charge, cruise operators warn they might weigh anchor and take their business elsewhere.
What could a cruise levy look like?
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