Stirling Council

Tourism is one of the pillars of Stirling’s economy. The area welcomed 4.66 million visitors in 2024, generating £712 million of economic impact and supporting around 8,500 full-time equivalent jobs, about 17% of all employment in the council area. In 2025, as Stirling Council consulted on a proposed visitor levy on paid overnight accommodation under the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024, it asked Xcentuate to carry out an independent assessment of the levy’s likely economic impact.

Stirling Visitor Levy – Economic Impact Assessment

Stirling visitor levy in numbers:

4.66m

visitors to Stirling in 2024

£712m

annual tourism economic impact

levy rate adopted by the Council

Scope of work

Evidence base

Our team reviewed the Council’s draft scheme and the two rounds of public consultation behind it, the structure and recent performance of Stirling’s paid accommodation sector, and twelve years of STEAM tourism data. Adjusting for inflation showed that the sector’s apparent growth since the pandemic was far more modest in real terms than the headline figures suggested, which shaped how we weighed the risks and opportunities of a levy.

Scenario modelling

We built an evaluation tool that modelled thousands of scenarios for the five years from 2027 to 2031. It tested year-round and seasonal designs at rates from 1% to 7%, varying price elasticity of demand, how much of the levy is passed on to guests, exemptions, compliance and the efficiency with which the Council reinvests the receipts. Scottish Government input-output multipliers were used to trace effects on accommodation providers, their suppliers and the wider economy, measured as gross value added and job-years, with reinvestment effects discounted on Green Book principles.

Consultation and sector evidence

The modelling was read alongside the views of businesses, accommodation providers and residents gathered through the consultation, and the experience of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen in designing their own schemes, so that the recommendations reflected operating realities as well as the economics.

Recommendations

The assessment found that every modelled rate produced a positive net position for the Council, but that higher rates carried a disproportionate cost for accommodation providers, particularly smaller and independent businesses. A 5% levy was projected to raise about £4.7 million a year while reducing bookings by around 3.7%. At 3%, receipts of about £2.9 million a year came with a much smaller effect on demand, and with well-governed reinvestment the sector’s losses could be offset within the five-year period.

We recommended introducing the levy at a moderate rate of 3%, ring-fencing receipts for tourism investment, targeting spend where the evidence of visitor growth is strongest, minimising the administrative burden on providers, maintaining active engagement with the sector, building in formal review points and retaining the option to adjust or suspend the levy if the evidence warranted it.

In December 2025 Stirling Council approved a year-round visitor levy at 3%, reduced from the 5% in its draft scheme, drawing on the consultation findings and the independent economic analysis. The levy takes effect for stays from 14 June 2027 and is expected to raise almost £3 million a year, all of it reinvested in facilities and services used by visitors. Providers will retain 3% of what they collect to cover their costs, and a Visitor Levy Forum of industry and community representatives has been established to advise on how the scheme operates and how its proceeds are spent.

Source for the Council’s decision: Stirling Council, Stirling Visitor Levy business support highlighted, https://www.stirling.gov.uk/news/stirling-visitor-levy-business-support-highlighted/ and Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, Stirling Visitor Levy Scheme Approved, https://www.assc.co.uk/news/stirling-visitor-levy-scheme-approved/