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The National
01-06-2025
- Business
- The National
Scotland charts new course with targeted cruise tax plan
Summer in the isles is cruise season. You can't miss it. Last year saw more than 1000 ships and 1.2 million passengers calling into Scottish ports. An increase of almost 50% on pre-pandemic arrivals, big ship arrivals are getting larger and more frequent. Last May, the 6000-passenger MSC Virtuosa became the largest ship to visit Shetland to date, doubling the population of Lerwick overnight. The equivalent of 12 jumbo jets of tourists arriving at once on the harbour wall. It's no wonder it feels like cruising has reached a high-water mark in some ports. Following the Visitor Levy Scotland Act, passed into law last year, a separate cruise ship levy is currently under review. Announced by the Scottish Greens in 2024, it was destined to be about more than just collecting revenue in local ports. READ MORE: Labour has 'given up' on by-election amid SNP-Reform contest, says John Swinney The big, white ships have become a totemic issue for the tourism industry. Travelling under flags of convenience – often under marine diesel power – they have come to represent over-tourism, unaccountability and harmful emissions. That said, in many places, they are also a mainstay for local shops and businesses, making up more than half of total arrivals in some ports. The cases both for and against cruises are as large and complex as the $70 billion global industry. So, when a local cruise tax was floated, it was surprising to see the degree of support from both sides of this introduced, Scotland would be the first part of the UK to have a cruise specific tax. Though there are plenty of overseas ports that have already introduced charges on the grounds of tackling environmental issues and problem tourism. Some destinations like Amsterdam have gone as far as banning future ship arrivals – saying no economic gain can outweigh the 'crowds and emissions'. The city will halve arrivals next year, closing its passenger cruise terminal by 2035. Others have used levies as a source of revenue for regional councils, which see tens of thousands of arrivals each summer and little direct return. Earlier this year, the Orkney Island Council came out in favour of a cruise ship levy. After welcoming a record 160,000 passengers via the cruise terminal in Kirkwall, a levy was seen as a way to address growing tourist numbers and over-stretched budgets. 'A cruise ship levy could allow local authorities to maintain essential services and infrastructure,' said council leader Heather remains a divisive issue, especially in the regions that feel the impacts most keenly – both positive and negative. Cruise taxes, on the other hand, have a far broader appeal. (Image: George Munro) This is not the first time a tax on Scottish tourist ships has been proposed. Cruising got special attention when a 'discretionary visitor levy' was debated in 2019 and ultimately abandoned. The passing of the Visitor Levy Act and the return of cruising to the dock of public opinion are signs of a new momentum behind a specific tax on liners. Given half of the UK's growing two million-passenger cruise industry made a call at a Scottish port last year, the appeal of Scotland as a destination gives local authorities confidence in a levy's viability. However, unlike Edinburgh City cashing in on festival goers or a proposed Highlands B&B bed tax, a ship levy has the potential to be far more impactful. In the face of a poorly conceived charge, cruise operators warn they might weigh anchor and take their business elsewhere. What could a cruise levy look like? Despite the unmistakable shape of a passenger liner, a cruise levy is a difficult thing to define. Cruise ships are big, getting bigger, with vessels growing at a rate of 10,000 gross tonnes per decade. Still, there is huge variance within the growing industry, especially in smaller regional ports around the British Isles. The Scottish cruise levy has been given a very broad scope to account for this. Under the consultation, the current basis to charge vessels would be ships 'carrying paying passengers', on 'a journey involving two or more nights' and that 'give passengers the option to disembark on to the Scottish mainland/islands'. This could apply to anything from a private yacht charter to an 8000-passenger Icon-class cruise liner. The potential abuse of a 'single night cruise loophole' has been raised, allowing bad faith operators to dodge a levy by issuing multiple tickets or running a token ferry service. Given the state of some sea links, this might not be the worst of unintended consequences. The biggest clues as to what a levy might look like are in its objectives. The cruise levy was suggested as an alternative to the Visitor Levy, where a bed tax is not viable. Greens MSP Ross Greer says his party proposed the levy with regional cruise ports in mind. (Image: PA) 'There are areas like Inverclyde, that I represent, which realistically are not going to see a huge benefit from the Visitor Levy because there aren't huge numbers of people staying in hotels on land, but they get thousands of ship passengers passing through every year,' he says. The port of Greenock is set to welcome 80 ships this summer, with the majority of visitors going straight through to Glasgow and the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs on day visits. 'We want to make sure that as many communities as possible are getting the benefit of the huge number of visitors that come to Scotland every year. The Visitor Levy goes a long way to do that. The cruise ship levy is the next part of the puzzle.' Although the consultation has made it clear there are additional goals. Environment is given special consideration, with specific questions on whether a levy can be used to target cruise emissions. A ship running on marine diesel churns out the particulate pollution of around one million cars, according to Germany's NABU union. More modern ships using liquified natural gas LNG, designed to remove most of the more damaging heavy pollutants, still churn out 250g of carbon dioxide per passenger kilometre. Or, the equivalent of every passenger driving the same journey in a family car, one-and-a-half times. 'Cruises come with significant economic benefit but none of that takes away from the fact that cruise ships are just about one of the most environmentally damaging kinds of transport there is,' said Greer. When it was taken forward for development, the Greens hoped that a levy could have a steer on the size and type of ship being used. At the party conference in October, it was proposed that a levy could even be used to encourage a switch to zero emissions vessels in Scotland. So is it a green tax or a tourist tax? ON the face of it, the cruise levy is being formulated for seemingly contradictory goals. It is expected to both discourage ships, while also giving incentive to attract more revenue-earning visits. Cruise operators' main criticisms of a levy is that they are not sure which to prepare for. 'The challenge is that we're not really sure of the purpose of the levy,' says Andy Harmer, managing director of CLIA United Kingdom & Ireland. The Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) has been representing ship operators at roundtable discussions during the early consultation process. 'Our planners, cruise itinerary makers, work three or four years in advance from now and that uncertainty isn't particularly helpful,' says Harmer. (Image: Newsquest) Given the timeframe, passengers booking cruises with stops in Scotland may already be subject to a future cruise levy. CLIA members are keen to get clarity as soon as possible. As the largest trade association representing 95% of the world's cruise ships, negotiating levies is now a familiar consideration for CLIA partners. Particularly in Europe. Over the past five years, a wave of cruise-specific tourist taxes have arrived in some of the busiest ports of call, from Barcelona to Dubrovnik. Examples that Scotland is currently looking to. What separates the Scottish cruise levy is the fact that it would grant all local authorities the ability to introduce their own taxes, potentially, at once. The result could be a patchwork of different levies, independent of Holyrood or Westminster. 'I don't want to speak for our cruise lines, who will make their own commercial decisions in this space, but I think our concern is that there are other opportunities. There are other destinations,' says Harmer. 'What we don't want is for Scotland to be seen as an unattractive place to do cruise business.'Cruise Britain, which promotes the destination and monitors cruise arrivals, says a cruise levy could result in some ports seeing more ships tendering for visits, not fewer. 'Scotland is really important to the British cruise story. Around half of all day-call transit guests will step ashore in Scotland, which gives you an idea of how key that experience is,' says director Kay Greenway. As well as an attractive destination in its own right, due to its location Scotland is an important node on the Global cruise network. Receiving shipping from Northern Europe and the Atlantic, almost a third of the global fleet passes through the UK waters in a year. 'A patchwork outcome would really disadvantage some ports against others,' says Greenway. The prospect of locally managed cruise levies are far more difficult for cruise operators to navigate. Clarity and simplicity are the main criteria for the cruise industry. However, there is no mechanism for a top-down, national cruise tax. 'Devolution doesn't allow the Scottish Government to create new national taxes without the Treasury's agreement, so we create new local taxes by necessity,' says Ross Greer, though he doesn't see this as a bad thing. Following the Scottish Visitor Levy, similar legislation has been inspired in the Welsh Sennedd. A final vote on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Bill will take place in Wales this summer. South of the Border, Friends of the Lake District bemoaned being unable to introduce an Edinburgh-style bed tax in Cumbria as there is no legal route to make this happen in England. As with the Visitor Levy, it will be up to each local authority to weigh up the benefits of their own cruise tax. Greer and the Greens say the priority is creating a levy that suits the local authorities rather than the cruise lines. 'By Scotland going first, because of our natural environment and the high number of cruise passengers that we get here, we can set an example for the rest of the UK,' Greer adds. Can a cruise tax encourage greener liners? Scotland isn't the first country to try to introduce a sustainability tax on liners. The results of these, however, have been mixed. A review by the Scottish Government shows that cruise levies see a fairly limited reduction in arrivals. The examples show most cruise ports return to pre-levy arrival levels almost instantly. Since imposing a €7 (£6) a day tariff in 2018, Barcelona's cruise arrivals have grown almost 10% to 2.18 million passengers. At the other end of the spectrum, there have been over-ambitious 'cruising bans' that have had to be rowed back. Norway made waves by announcing it would ban all greenhouse-gas-emitting ships from its Western Fjords from 2026. This was until last year, when it was clear almost no ships were able to meet these strict requirements. Now, ships over 10,000 tonnes have been granted an additional six-year grace period. (Image: Søren Lund Hviid/Alamy) The threat of a ban to the Unesco Heritage Site was enough to spur development of hybrid battery-powered fleets. Homegrown cruise operators Hurtigruten and Havila are currently leaders in hybrid electric-liquid natural gas shipping. Though, in most cases, Norway's aspirational cruise rule was aimed at ships that simply don't exist yet. Similarly, the industry's own climate goals will require a strong tailwind to be achieved and help from the destinations they visit. Following the UN's guidelines, CLIA set the target of meeting net zero cruising by 2050. This April, the UN's IMO put further pressure on cruise ships to meet these pledges, charging $380 per excess tonne of carbon dioxide. Yet in Scotland and the UK, one of the largest obstacles to reducing emissions is the lack of shore power, allowing ships to run off the grid rather than burning fuel in port. 'There is lots of sustainable electricity being generated in Scotland as there is in Norway,' says CLIA's Harmer. 'The difference is, in Europe, they have a mandate to have shoreside power in their key ports by 2030. There is no such mandate in the United Kingdom at the moment.' While Orkney and Aberdeen have the ability to supply power to ferries and some other large ships, the only cruise port in the UK with suitable shoreside power is Southampton. Levies provide an opportunity to invest in infrastructure that will be needed to decarbonise shipping. Something that Harmer says will be much harder to do if the pressure on reducing emissions is put entirely on the liners. CLIA aren't the only ones with suggestions on how revenue from a cruise tax would be best spent. Some environmental groups have suggested proceeds should be ring-fenced to address the impact of shipping on Scottish ports. If it is unlikely to have a major impact on the number of calls, it might as well be used to monitor sustainability goals and compliance. Friends of the Earth, which produces an annual grading of liners' environmental credentials, says they support a cruise levy with environmental goals in Scotland but relying on operators to self-report sustainability goals is a flawed system. The US branch has recorded 16 major violations from CLIA members in the past three decades. Marcie Keever, director of oceans at Friends of the Earth US, says proceeds could be used to fund an independent observer programme 'because this industry has difficulty complying with environmental rules and standards'. Meanwhile, UK-based marine life charity ORCA says, if it is difficult or not desirable for local authorities to curb ship arrivals, there are ways that cruise ships can do good for Scotland's marine ecosystem. 'When it comes to a levy like the one that has been proposed, it certainly makes sense for this to be invested at least in part in protecting and safeguarding the habitats that the tourism sector relies on,' says ORCA director of operationsSteve Jones. The charity has previously partnered with shipping to monitor the health of Scotland's 240 Marine Protected Areas. Having levy-funded observer programmes on cruise ships could help track their impact and ensure best practice around Scotland. Ultimately as local taxes, proposed under the current devolution settlement, it will be up to the local authorities to allocate any funds from a future cruise levy. The cruise levy consultation period runs until May 30, after which the Scottish Government will prepare a summary ahead of any vote to introduce the levy by Scottish ministers.
BBC News
02-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Medals for 2025 Island Games in Orkney are unveiled
The medals for the Orkney Island Games have been revealed with 100 days to go until the event 12–18 July, Orkney will welcome about 2,000 athletes from 24 island groups to compete in 12 marks the first time Orkney has hosted the Games in its 40-year history, making it a landmark occasion for the islands and the biggest sporting event in its hosted the event for the third time in 2023, and will be sending a team to Orkney alongside Jersey, Alderney and Sark. The 20th International Island Games will bring together athletes to compete in a wide variety of disciplines. Orkney is gearing up to host athletes, coaches, and spectators from dozens of island nations, creating an event that is as much about community and camaraderie as it is about 100 days to go until the Games begin, the medals that will be presented to each winning athlete have been Orkney and Orkney 2025 ran a competition for the design of the medals and ribbon. Judges picked islander Jodie Brown's standing stones medal design to feature on all 1,272 medals presented at Orkney 2025. They show Orkney's Standing Stones of Stenness, which are believed to be older than Stonehenge and an iconic island Brown, aged 23 from Kirkwall, will receive her own commemorative set and present a medal during the Games. She said the Neolithic stones depicted represent first, second and third in each competition as well as the Orkney's rich history. The ribbon design was won by Olivia Yorston, whose striking concept represents the flag colours of Orkney and features all the official Island Games logos. The medals have been sponsored by Orkney jewellery designer, Sheila Talbot, director of Orkney 2025, said: "Orkney is a thriving hub for creatives, attracting artists, writers, musicians, and craftspeople from across the globe. "With only 100 days to go until we welcome the world, excitement is building and we are very much looking forward to creating positive memories which will last a lifetime." Gordon Deans, chairman of Orkney 2025, said staging the Games had been a logistical challenge."The Games is supported by principle funders the Scottish Government and Orkney Island Council, and would not be possible without the incredible efforts of the Orkney community," he said."Over 800 volunteers have stepped forward to take on vital roles, from stewarding events to supporting athletes and spectators. "Their dedication showcases the warmth and hospitality that make Orkney such a special place." The Games kick off with an opening ceremony and athletes' parade in Kirkwall on Saturday 12 July, hosted by Lorraine Kelly. Highlights include the triathlon in Stromness, cycling road races through the West Mainland, and the half marathon in Kirkwall. The opening ceremony and sporting events are free and open for all to attend.
