Politicians in Edinburgh have approved a tourist tax for overnight visitors to the Scottish capital, introducing the first such charge in the UK.

From mid-2026, guests staying in certain types of accommodation, such as a hotel, bed and breakfast, hostel, self-catering apartment or guest house, will be charged a 5% charge per night on the cost of their stay. According to the local authority, the charge is limited to five consecutive nights.

Accommodation providers will be responsible for collecting the charge on behalf of the authority.

Ahead of the vote, Edinburgh City Council leader Jane Meagher told MPs that tourism was “putting a strain on the city’s resources” and that funding was needed to develop it “in a planned and sustainable way”.

In 2023, Edinburgh received nearly 5 million overnight visitors, spending £2.2 billion ($2.7 billion) on visits to Scotland, according to the National Tourism Organisation.

The council expects the new tax to raise £45-50 million ($56-62 million) a year by 2028 or 2029.

A visitor tax in Edinburgh has been under discussion since 2018 and became possible when the Visitor Tax (Scotland) Act came into force in July.

Under the bill, revenue from the tax is to be used to support local facilities and services used by business and leisure visitors, according to the Edinburgh City Council website.

Some MPs said before the vote that they wanted to increase tax revenue, expressing a desire to spend the revenue from visitor tax on providing affordable housing for residents, saying that many people felt the current cost of the tourist tax was too high.

Consultations with residents and businesses have been ongoing since a draft was published in August.

More than half of residents and businesses agreed to a 5% tax, while most visitors (62%) were against a tax and thought the tax should be lower, according to a local authority notice.

The limit on the number of nights for the tax was originally drafted as seven, but it was reduced to five after observations from Visit Scotland and the Edinburgh Festival highlighted that performers and other festival workers often stay for several weeks.

Before the final decision on Friday, MPs approved the plan last week, with Meagher calling the move “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest millions of pounds to improve and maintain the things that make our city such a great place to visit and live all year round,” according to a news release.

Edinburgh joins a list of European cities to introduce a tourist tax in recent years.

The Welsh government plans to introduce similar legislation in Scotland this year.

Last year, Venice trialled a temporary entrance fee for day visitors, with officials hailing the scheme as a success and raising millions of euros.

Amsterdam is said to have the highest tourist tax in Europe, with a nightly rate of 12.5% ​​on hotel room rates.

The same fee applies to camping sites and vacation rentals in the Dutch capital, while sea and river cruise operators must pay 14.50 euros ($15.20) per passenger, according to the Amsterdam city website.