With suggestions that the levy on visitors making overnight stays in hotels, B&Bs and other forms of accommodation could potentially raise tens of millions of pounds a year, Marc Crothall, chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, said it should be used for “game-changing strategic investment”.
He told the committee: “What shouldn’t be happening is the substitution of budgets with funds based on the levy, the council making a saving, substituting that money with the levy. He stressed the importance of tourism to the economy in “many parts of Scotland”, and added: “There are a range of calculations setting out the funds that may be raised through the levy.