Economy minister Vaughan Gething says people should have an "open mind" on proposals for a tourism tax in Wales and insisted no county will be forced to charge it.
First Minister Mark Drakeford has included a proposal to allow local authorities to introduce a levy on visitors - most commonly imposed on nights spent in hotels, B&Bs or self catered holiday lets - in his programme for government.
This has sparked a backlash from the sector with the Wales Tourism Alliance(WTA) and North Wales Tourism among those who have attacked the idea.
Welsh Government has said that tourism taxes are used successfully around the world but the industry said most of the areas with levies have lower VAT rates than the 海角视频.
Mr Gething, who was visiting businesses in north east Wales today, said: "People should have an open mind on a tourism tax.
"We are starting a conversation on this - it is not something we'll be rolling out in six weeks, we are just starting the consultation."
He added that it had not put people off visiting other areas with tourism taxes and money raised could be invested to improve the visitor offer and reduce impact on local communities.
He said if it did go forwards then "power would go the local authorities" .
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He said: "We are not talking about a nationally set rate, and local authorities could make decisions on how any money raised would be spent."
He reiterated that no council would be forced to adopt a levy and it would be a local decision.
He added: "For example Flintshire could decide not to use this while Ynys Mon does."
WTA chairman Andrew Campbell blasted the timing of the Welsh Government tax proposal as insensitive and said it showed a lack of respect to the tourism industry in Wales when a recruitment crisis is hampering recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jim Jones, chief executive at North Wales Tourism, said: “North Wales is increasingly recognised as a world class visitor destination with international and 海角视频 wide appeal, we have the opportunity to significantly grow the value of tourism to the local economy and region as a whole.
“Instead of the Welsh Government prioritising the recovery and optimistically talking growth, such as a 1% increase in tourism spend which would add an extra £20m to the economy, we find ourselves back to 2017 when the then Finance Minister Mark Drakeford was trying to push through four new taxes, one being tourism tax.
“We told him then as we tell him now, this is not welcomed by the majority of the industry."