Galway city eyes tourist tax that could raise over €2m a year
Galway city is seeking to pilot a nightly tourist tax which could generate millions of euro in funding every year for Galway City Council.
During April’s Galway City Council meeting, councillors agreed to seek support from the Tourism Department to implement a “bed tax” for tourists.
Director of Finance Helen Kilroy said that with over 2 million visitors and a consistent year-round tourism sector, “a modest levy of €1 per night could bring in over €2 million a year.”
Income from the tax would then be ringfenced and used to feed back into services that enhance the tourist experience like safety management, street cleaning, and festivals.
Sally Ann O’Brien, Galway City Council’s new Head of Tourism, said that tourists will expect a tax or levy placed on bookings as they would when travelling in 21 other European countries.
This tax would also boost the amount of money used to enhance the city after Local Property Taxes. Galway receives one of the lowest Local Property Tax (LPT) baselines from central government funding.
However, general concerns were also raised. Among them, councillors highlighted possible negative consequences of using the word “tax”, saying that many tourists hear too much of “taxes” already.
Others questioned how the tourist levy could remain sustainable if implemented.
Councillor Alan Curran said that the potential inconsistency of tourism numbers could “severely impact our ability to budget effectively” if relying on the income. “We need to protect ourselves from those economic shocks.”
While councillors were generally in agreement with a new tourist tax plan, many argued to address Government funding as the much larger problem, calling instead for a meeting with Oireachtas to change LPT allocations.
Councillor Michael Crowe said: “The biggest problem we have here is the tier ranking in the [LPT] system. The sole purpose for an Oireachtas meeting must be to change the tier that Galway is in.”
Galway City Council’s Chief Executive Leonard Cleary said the tourist tax would be accomplishing one of the local authority’s top 10 projects for the term.
A report on the introduction of the tourist tax, given by Ms Kilory, will be shared with the Oireachtas as well as the Housing and Finance department for further discussions.