Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, proposes a tourist tax on overseas visitors to support UK's struggling national museums. In a Financial Times piece, he argues that unlike major cities like Paris and New York, London lacks a visitor levy to manage mass tourism. He cites declining public investment in the arts and suggests a charge of 3% to 5% on hotel stays, potentially generating over £1bn. However, he cautions that charging fees could reduce visitor numbers and warns about potential funding cuts from the Treasury linked to increased self-generated income.
"Let's finally get on with it and introduce a tourist charge on overseas visitors at hotels and overnight tourist accommodation but with the funds ring fenced for cultural infrastructure."
"London is now a crazy outlier in not having a visitor levy to manage mass tourism."
"We certainly need the cash. Across all major areas of support, public investment in the arts in England and Wales fell by 21% from 2009/10 to 2020/21..."
"The Treasury also has a nasty habit of lowering public funding as it sees self-generated income growing."
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