Edinburgh Book Festival asks publishers to pay for accommodation costs due to tourist tax

In an email first reported by publishing industry The Bookseller, festival bosses cited rising costs and Edinburgh’s new 5 per cent visitor levy being introduced next summer as the reasons behind the unprecedented move.

The email sent to publishers, written by Jenny Niven, director and chief executive of the annual festival, stated accommodation was a “huge area” of expenditure for the festival every year.

It is understood the festival is asking publishers to cover 50 per cent of accommodation costs to be invoiced at the end of next year’s festival. Accommodation prices average £330 per night during the festival dates, meaning publishers would be expected to contribute £165 per night.

Ms Niven said in the email: “The book festival is a charity and in 2025, we spent around £200,000 on accommodating our festival.

“We believe that this makes us an outlier in terms of similar-sized festivals in England and Wales, who for the most part do not cover these accommodation costs. This is the first time that we have made such a request.”

Ms Niven said cost increases “will not give us the savings we need to deliver a festival that is excellent and also sustainable”. She pointed out the festival was not exempt from the visitor levy coming into force in July next year.

“We are actively lobbying the council about this and any benefit to this will be to all of our advantage,” she said.

Ms Niven also requested “continued assistance” with travel costs, asking publishers to bring authors from within the UK by train and for contributions for those travelling from further away.

She wrote: “We work with nearly 20 international consulates and cultural organisations, and our external affairs manager pursues funding opportunities to help with costs for international writers.”

The Edinburgh visitor levy is a 5 per cent payment on the cost of paid, overnight accommodation such as hotels, B&Bs, and holiday lets. It will apply to stays after July 24 next year, but will only be charged on the first five nights of a visitor's stay.

Earlier this year, Festivals Edinburgh, which involves representatives from a range of major festivals in the city including the EIBF, wrote in a submission to Westminster's Culture Committee that rising costs were the “single greatest challenge” for major events in the UK today.

The organisation said the rising cost of doing business was driven by increasing costs of materials, labour, insurance, transport and energy. The body also warned that local authorities were increasingly taking back costs from festivals, which left them more reliant on public funding to survive.

Ms Niven warned earlier this year that “powerful” loss-making community work by the book festival was at risk if a new sponsor could not be found to replace Baillie Gifford.

The Scotsman reported earlier this month that accommodation providers were failing to make it clear if prices advertised for rooms available for booking for next summer in Edinburgh included the new visitor levy.