Yorkshire tourism tax: are we worth it?

Did you know with a Digital subscription to Yorkshire Post, you can get access to all of our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. After all, should the implementation and subsequent impacts of such a tax have a deleterious impact upon visitor numbers and spend, this newspaper would be the first to cry foul. However, it strikes The Yorkshire Post that there is a much simpler assessment that can be applied to the conundrum of whether or not a tourism tax is a good idea, which would cost less to bring to bear and speed up the process. They should ask, simply: Is Yorkshire worth it? Is our white rose county one that brings us pride, and one that can offer visitors joy? Were we one of those poor unfortunate souls who cannot lay claim to living within the county boundary of God's Own, would we venture here? Would we peer over the storied walls of Yorkshire and ask ourselves what wonders lie within it, such that we might be willing to contribute to the protection, upkeep and enhancement of them? The answer, then, to the question: is a tourist tax a good idea, becomes a much simpler one to answer. Yes, it is a good idea. Yet Professor Brnedan Paddison, Dean of York Business School at York St John University, is right. The detail does matter. Just days ago the National Trust announced it is to close cafes at Ravenscar and at the Old Coastguard Station in Robin Hood's Bay. If beautiful little spots like those cannot make ends meet, a further tax is unlikely to be music to the ears of struggling businesses like those. So, yes. Yorkshire is worth it. Absolutely it is. But not at any cost to businesses already hard-pressed.