A LEADING LAKE DISTRICT holiday park owner says that Cumbria has two years to step back from the potentially disastrous consequences of imposing a tourism tax on visitors.
Henry Wild of Skelwith Fold Caravan Park in Ambleside was speaking after the recent Government decision to allow mayors in England to impose tourism taxes.
Cumbria is to become a mayor-led authority in May 2027, and afterward could introduce a visitor levy on people staying overnight in the Lake District.
But Henry Wild, whose park was named in 2025 as the Lake District’s Holiday Park of the Year by Cumbria Tourism, said that such a move would be a “totally self-defeating measure”.
Instead of raising local revenues, he said, the number of visitors to Cumbria would be likely to fall as families turn to other destinations not imposing tourism taxes.
The effect of fewer holidaymakers, warns Henry, will be felt by a multitude of local businesses – such as shops, cafes and attractions – which rely on the tourism economy.
A levy on overnight visitors, he said, also flew in the face of fairness and common sense:
“Accommodation providers such as holiday parks and hotels pay substantial business rates to the local authority, and these are reflected in the prices we charge to guests.
“In other words, visitors are already putting their hands in their pockets when they stay the night in Cumbria – so a tourism tax would be a double whammy.
“Our businesses also pay for commercial services from the council, such as waste collection and recycling, so that’s another way we help to fill their coffers.
“It should also be remembered that although tens of millions of people visit Cumbria each year, many are day trippers and so won’t be contributing to the levy.
“I believe there is a strong case for our council to take a long and hard look at the threats this tax poses, and how it could damage local businesses already paying their way.” said Henry.
Owned by the Wild family for almost 30 years, Skelwith Fold has 450 pitches in 130 acres of countryside with staying options such as luxury safari tents and motorhome pitches.
Henry is a former national chairman of the Holiday and Residential Parks Association (HARPA) to which around 3,000 UK parks belong.
He has now issued an open invitation for council chiefs to meet him if they would like to weigh up the economic implications of bringing in a tourism tax in two years’ time.