My Tent Will Pay the Same Tourist Tax as a Five-Star Suite, and Frankly My Tent Is Insulted
A camper writes: 'My accommodation has a hole in it. Yours has a sommelier.'
Comrie, where the author's tent is pitched, and sulking. Photo: Rosser1954, “Parish Church, Comrie, Perthshire. View from the bridge”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
I have camped in Perthshire for thirty-one years. I have been rained on in Comrie, in Kenmore and, memorably, from below in Glen Lyon. So I know what I’m talking about when I say my tent and a five-star suite are not the same thing.
Yet under the proposed flat £4-a-night levy they will be taxed the same. The hotel guest, sipping a malt in a bathrobe worth more than my car, pays four pounds. I, lying in a puddle shaped like my own body, also pay four pounds. For me that’s a big slice of the night. For him it’s less than the tip for the lad who carried his bags.
I don’t object to paying something. I’d happily pay a midge-weighted levy, or one based on how often I’m woken at 5am by a cow. But a flat rate? That’s not fair. That’s just Perthshire being Perthshire.
I’ll be responding to the consultation. From my tent. If I can find a signal. And if the tent’s still there.
The real story: 100 businesses oppose Perth and Kinross tourist tax; flat £4 hits campsites hardest (The Courier)
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