Regarding 'Tourist tax for Lakes?' (Gazette, September 20) a ‘tourism’ tax, or ‘bed’ tax is not necessarily a bad thing.

That might sound surprising coming from a hotelier but my reason is simple. Unlike only a few years ago when the booking for a stay was done through the tourism bodies, or direct to the venue, now the bookings are almost always through ‘Online Travel Agents’ (OTAs) such as Booking.com, Lastminute.com, Trivago.com and so on, or through ‘Internet Deal’ companies (such as Wowcher, Groupon etc).

These organisation charge commissions of 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the room price, and the point is that virtually all of that goes off to their company bases in America. None of that money is recycled back into the local economy, where it was generated, which it would have been in the way that it used to be.

This takes large sums of money out of our economy and I am therefore in favour of a tourist tax, but with three provisos:

1. That it is not imposed on the hoteliers - they have a tough enough time as it. Instead it should be paid by the OTAs and discount houses that are benefitting from the commissions they charge and which they take away from the area.

2. That it is paid throughout the UK to create a level playing field. It is hard enough to get visitors to the North, and out of the cities, without forcing a levy on localities like the Lake District.

3. It is recycled locally in the area that it is taken from to repair and maintain the infrastructure that the visitor economy erodes. A small tax, say £1 per room-night ,would generate a huge income to support and develop the tourism economy to the benefit of all.

Tony Blaney

Bowness