Will a tourist tax in Norfolk and Suffolk be welcomed?
Adnams of Southwold has been operating in the town for more than 150 years. It has a brewery, hotels, a visitor centre, shops and pubs, which all play a prominent role in the tourism offer of the seaside resort. Jenny Hanlon, who became CEO of the firm in 2024 after joining the company in 2020, is not convinced the levy would raise the funds needed to really make a difference. According to the government, any levy applied by a mayor would be "reinvested to improve the holiday destination". She said: "A £1.00 levy every night, 365 days a year, it is less than £15,000 a year. "If it was a levy of 10% of the room stock, say, here in the area, in total that is £150,000. It sounds like quite a big bit of money, but actually, realistically, what are you going to do with that?" She said rather than focusing on what a levy could do, firms needed to look at what they do best and what customers want.She went on to clarify: "You can spend a lot of time and effort trying to second-guess what something might do or what the impact could be, rather than working on the things that are right in front of you now."
