The Scottish island driving a plan to charge motorhomes 'millions' as tourist tax looms

A Scottish island is driving ahead with a plan to charge a visitor tax on motorhome users.

Business leaders on Skye said the charge was necessary to counter the impact of a large number of the vehicles on roads and island life.

It comes as Scotland’s new ‘tourist tax’ passes into law to allow accommodation providers to add a small charge for overnight stays. Councils will have power to collect the revenue and distribute funds for tourism projects.

Motorhomes which do not stay on established sites are excluded from the scheme.

Simon Cousins, of Skye Connect, the island’s destination management organisation, said it wanted money raised on Skye by the tourist tax to remain on Skye - and said discussions were ongoing regarding a charge for motorhome users.

Mr Cousins said a motorhome charge could potentially raise “millions of pounds” for the island, which is expected to attract one million visitors this year. He said: “We think that campervans should be charged and it would be easy to do on Skye. Number plate recognition could capture the motorhomes at ferry ports and coming over the bridge.

“That could raise potentially millions of pounds a year given the number of campervans that we get. There is quite a lot of evidence that motorhome users don’t actually spend a lot of money in the local economy .

“They tend to fill up the campervans at supermarkets in Fort William or Inverness and come to Skye and travel around. Given the impact on the island, they should be charged, absolutely.

“Obviously there are complexities around charging and people will be wary of the introduction of tolls given the island fought very hard to get rid of the bridge toll. But if it was for a specific purpose and charging a specific class of vehicle, there is the potential there to come up with a scheme that is workable.”

Highland Council earlier lobbied the Scottish Government for motorhomes to be included in the tourist tax. It has since introduced its own voluntary £40 motorhome pass, which allows vehicles to park up overnight in 12 car parks and passengers to access leisure centres for showers.

The pass has been hotly criticised by established caravan and camping parks, which claim it is unfair competition given they have to meet strict health and safety requirements while paying tax, staffing costs and energy bills.

Mr Cousins said: “There is potentially a huge issue with the council making this voluntary scheme for campervans at a time when other accommodation providers are having a compulsory scheme placed on them. I think there will be some legal challenges around that.”

He described Skye as the “jewel in the crown” of Highland tourism and said he did not want the introduction of the tourist tax, which is due to be introduced in spring 2026, to be a “missed opportunity.”

“If we knew all of that money was coming to Skye, then plans could be made for spending it,” he said. “But if we have got to wait and pitch into a bidding process against other areas, we don’t think that we will get anywhere near the sums of money that are being raised on Skye.”

Cllr Ken Gowans, chair of Highland Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, earlier welcomed the passing of the tourist tax at the Scottish Parliament and said an 18-month period to set up the systems required to collect and adminster the levy would now begin.