The London Question: Should London have a tourist tax?

Transcript

00:00Tourist tax, hmm, that's a tricky one.

00:02Why not, yeah.

00:03I don't believe a tax is necessary.

00:05Erm, no, I think probably tourists spend enough money in London to make businesses viable,

00:10so I don't want to discourage people from coming to the city.

00:14Er, no, I don't think so. I don't really think, I mean, tourists bring in a lot of money to the

00:21economy already. I think prices are pretty high, so I don't really feel there should be a tourist tax.

00:27No, I don't think you should have a tourist tax. They, they put a lot of money already into

00:31the country with their tourism. Erm, I don't believe a tax is necessary.

00:36So all the cities that have done that, they have not improved, it's just a way to get more money.

00:42But definitely it's not to give more, unless they use the money, the extra money to improve the

00:48service and this, okay, that would make sense. Er, why not? Yeah, whenever you go, you pay the tax,

00:55sort of small tax when you book the hotel. I've been in, erm, Paris recently and I had to pay

01:02some extra small amount. Tourist tax, hmm, that's a tricky one. Not really, no, I, er, my gut feel is

01:10not really. I don't have a good idea of why that is, but not really. I think there's sufficient, erm,

01:16sufficient accommodation for people. And I think many of the, the cities that have had a tourist tax

01:23is simply because they aren't able to keep up the, the basic infrastructure that was there

01:29and, er, and they've outgrown themselves with things like AirBnB or whatever.