HOSPITALITY industry bosses hit out today at government plans to let mayors in England impose a tourism tax.

Downing Street said the proposed overnight visitor levy would ensure that communities keep more of the benefits of tourism, allowing local leaders to reinvest the money raised according to local priorities.

UK Hospitality chief Allen Simpson claimed that the tax would destroy thousands of jobs.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What we’re talking about here is an open-ended power for mayors to set tourism taxes at any level they want.

“Remember, if you go to Paris, if you go to Rome, if you go to Berlin, you’re paying a small tourism tax, but it’s capped. This one isn’t. And VAT is only 10 per cent.

“So even before England introduces this new tax, the tax on a holiday in the UK is already more expensive than our peers.

“For anyone who takes a holiday in the UK, it’s going to be an average of about £100, £120, on the cost of a family holiday, which is more than double the benefit from the energy VAT cut that we saw earlier in the year. So it is not going to be painless.”

But Communist Party general secretary Alex Gordon told the Morning Star: “Hospitality bosses seem to be living in a rerun episode of Fawlty Towers.

“Unite, the union representing workers in Britain’s hospitality sector, reports a litany of complaints of underpayment, sexual harassment and discrimination and victimisation of union members.

“The idea that a tourism tax and better regulation of the sector is a threat to workers’ jobs is as laughable as Basil Fawlty.”

Scotland and Wales already have their own versions of the tax.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Liverpool City Mayor Steve Rotheram had called for one in England before the plans for an overnight visitor levy Bill were included in the King’s speech in May.

More than 42 million international visitors came to Britain last year, spending more than £32 billion.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said that the levy would only apply to people paying for overnight accommodation.

She confirmed that the levy would be charged as a percentage of accommodation cost, not as a flat fee.