Edinburgh Tourist Tax proposed. Stags and hens bring £1.66 billion and lots of vomit

We're often told how much all these foreign visitors bring to the local economy in Edinburgh: £1.66 billion is the latest estimate. But those of us without a vested interest in hotels, bars, restaurants and souvenir shops don't get to see much of that money. Somehow, it ends up costing us £1.8 million in direct support to the festivals alone, plus the cost of sweeping up all that stag and hen vomit, festival flyers, tourist guides and the like.
So hats off to Edinburgh Council leader Donald Anderson for proposing a tourist tax. A couple of pounds a night on a hotel bed isn't going to cripple the tourist industry and the result would be that - instead of local residents subsidising the business of visitors - they would benefit from it.