There are few places in Britain quite like York and North Yorkshire. From the medieval streets and ancient walls of York to the sweeping landscapes of the North York Moors and the Howardian Hills, the Yorkshire Dales to the seaside town of Filey and the market towns of Skipton, Richmond, Malton, Helmsley, Pickering and Bedale, this is a region that lives and breathes tourism.
Visitors come to explore one of Europe's finest historic cities, walk the moors, discover centuries of history, enjoy Yorkshire's pubs and restaurants, and experience the character of our towns and villages. Tourism here is not a luxury or a nice extra. It is the economic backbone of thousands of families and small businesses.
That is why I am deeply concerned about proposals to introduce a tourism levy on visitors to the region.
It will be deeply damaging. My fellow local Conservative MPs, Rishi Sunak, Julian Smith and Alec Shelbrooke recently wrote to the Mayor to make that position clear. When the opportunity came to stand up for the tourism and hospitality businesses that power our local economy, Conservative MPs in North Yorkshire spoke with one voice.
Winston Churchill once observed that some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, and that too few see it as a healthy horse pulling a sturdy wagon.
That distinction feels particularly relevant today. The tourism and hospitality sector in North Yorkshire is not a convenient revenue stream to be tapped whenever budgets are tight. It is the engine of our regional economy.
Most tourism businesses here are small, independent and family-run. They operate on tight margins in what has already been an extremely difficult environment. They pay VAT, corporation tax, business rates and Employers National Insurance, which has recently been hiked by around £25bn per annum.
Following the Chancellor's Autumn Budget, the hospitality sector nationally now faces an additional £3.4 billion tax burden. Enough is enough.
The consequences are already being felt. Around 89,000 hospitality jobs have been lost across the UK since that Budget. These are not abstract statistics. They represent people's livelihoods in the pubs, cafés, hotels and guesthouses that support local families and give life to towns and villages across North Yorkshire.
Against that backdrop, proposing yet another levy on visitors is totally wrong.
There are also practical questions that have not yet been answered. Who would actually pay the levy? Overnight visitors, business travellers or day-trippers? Accommodation providers fear they will be turned into unpaid tax collectors, responsible for administering a complex system that adds cost and bureaucracy to businesses already under pressure.
Small providers face another risk. Many operate just below the VAT threshold. Even modest increases in turnover linked to a levy could push them into VAT registration, fundamentally changing their cost base and pricing structure overnight.
There is also the issue of accountability. If money is raised from local visitors will it genuinely be reinvested in those communities? Or will it disappear into a central pot with little transparency for the businesses and residents who generated it?
At present, the Government has not even clearly set out what such a levy would look like, but it's likely to add hundreds of pounds to the cost of a family holiday. That alone should give pause for thought. The burden of proof lies with those proposing the tax, not those questioning it.
Before any further steps are taken, the process should be paused and meaningful engagement undertaken with the tourism and hospitality businesses whose livelihoods depend on visitors.
North Yorkshire's appeal lies in its authenticity, its landscapes, its heritage and its independent spirit. Those qualities exist because generations of small business owners have invested their lives in sustaining them.
Tourism is a key part of the strong horse pulling the wagon of our local economy. The last thing it needs is another heavy load to pull along.
