A tourist tax or levy would be a “positive” thing for Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth has told Express.co.uk.
It comes after the Welsh government, which Plaid Cymru is a part of, continues to consider imposing a charge on visitors to the country.
Ministers are working on proposals that will give local authorities the power to introduce the levy.
The money raised would be put back into tourism and help to maintain sustainability in the sector.
Proposals would require new legislation in the Senedd if moved forward, though opposition figures vehemently disagree with the idea and say it will deter holidaymakers and weaken tourist operators.
“I don’t see it as a tax because it’s a levy paid by visitors,” Mr ap Iorwerth said. “I pay a levy when I go to Spain or other places, and I’ve long believed that a tourism levy could really benefit the communities that tourism affects.”
Wales is one of Britain’s tourist hotspots, especially in the summer months, with the latest figures showing that 8.71 million residents of the UK made overnight trips to the country in 2022, generating £1.919million.
While the visitors are welcomed, mass tourism has negatively affected some parts of the country, the main culprits being congestion and overcrowding leading to environmental degradation.
In a visitor levy paper first proposed by the Welsh government in 2022, it suggested the country may emulate international models where charges vary from £0.50 to £5 per night.
If the upper limit of the charge had been implemented in 2022, and assuming all those people had stayed in regions and accommodation where it was enforced, £43,500,000 would have been generated from the levy alone.
Mr ap Iorwerth said: “Bringing that levy in, that money in, can be spent on mitigating some of the negatives while at the same time investing in the tourist experience — it can only be a positive thing.”
Many countries in Europe enforce a localised tourist levy on visitors. It is usually payable locally and on checking out of accommodation.
“In Wales, it could mean the reopening of tourist information centres, many of which have been lost because councils can’t afford to keep them open,” said Mr ap Iorwerth.
He also suggested the levy might be reinvested in skills in the tourism sector and hospitality, “and a way to build a more sustainable tourism industry — I have no question that this is a positive thing”.
Some in the Senedd have hit out at the plans. Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives, told Express.co.uk that any sort of levy would be “devastating to Wales’ tourism industry”.
He continued: “It will make tourism operators uncompetitive to other parts of the tourism sector in the UK, and it is in effect a way of trying to track down economic activity in some parts of Wales because operators have indicated that they will close down because of this levy.”
In 2022, UK Hospitality Cymru labelled the levy as “the wrong tax at the wrong time”, and that an increase in prices might push customers to competitors.
Llandudno Hospitality Association expressed similar observations about the impact a levy could have on the competitiveness of Wales and other tourist hotspots in the UK.
Mr Davies added that the introduction of new minimum occupancy rules, in which holiday business lets that do not reach the required 182 days of occupancy will be charged council tax instead of business rates, would combine with a tourist levy to hit the sector tenfold.
“Instead of engaging with the sector and improving the chances for our tourism sector to thrive and grow and create quality jobs and a great experience, Plaid Cymru and Labour are doing all they can to shut it down,” he added.
