Cruise ship levy in Inverclyde unlikely until at least 2026

Officials at Inverclyde Council say that the local authority should ‘monitor the roll-out of the visitor levy nationally’ before deciding whether to introduce it at a local level.

Councils across Scotland gained the power last year to introduce the levy – labelled in some quarters as a ‘tourist tax’.

But the levy itself has attracted a mixed response, with councils in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen set to introduce it in 2026 or 2027, while local authorities in some rural areas, including Argyll and Bute and East Ayrshire, have stepped back.

Inverclyde Council’s leader, Councillor Stephen McCabe, told the Tele last year that he believed the levy would not put cruise ship operators off bringing their vessels to Greenock, while West Scotland Labour MSP Katy Clark said a small fee of £3 per passenger could generate up to £300,000 a year for the local economy.

The Silver Dawn made one of more than 80 cruise ship calls at Greenock during 2025. (Image: George Munro)

The Scottish Greens have also hailed the economic benefits of the idea.

Other local councillors from Labour and the SNP have also said they support the introduction of a levy – though long-serving Conservative councillor David Wilson told a meeting of the authority’s environment and regeneration committee in September of his fear that a levy would make the council look ‘penny-pinching’.

Councillor David Wilson said a visitor levy 'risks killing the goose that laid the golden egg'. (Image: George Munro)

He warned that the move would put the council ‘in danger of killing the goose that laid the golden egg’.

The new report, which will go before members of the council’s policy and resources committee next week, recommends that Inverclyde officials should keep a watching brief on the levy for now, and should report in more detail on the idea before the council’s 2026 summer recess.

Neale McIlvanney, the council’s interim director for regeneration, says in the report: “The only approved schemes in Scotland are in city regions, which will have a critical mass of qualifying accommodation, thereby ensuring the scheme is more likely to be viable.

Councillor Stephen McCabe previously told the Tele that he didn't believe a levy would put cruise ship operators off visiting Inverclyde. (Image: George Munro)

“At present, no early scoping work has taken place in Inverclyde in the form of pre-engagement with industry or work to calculate potential income and nor are the costs of operation known.

“Given that the potential viability of a scheme in Inverclyde is not certain, mainly due to low numbers of bed spaces for tourism, but also due to uncertainty about [the] cost of collection model, it is proposed that the council maintains a watching brief on the roll-out of provision in early adopter authorities, and reports to a future committee, prior to summer recess 2026, regarding the merits of commencing work to establish a visitor levy in Inverclyde."

Councillors on the committee will consider the report at a meeting on November 18.