By Roy Wood, Special to the Times Chronicle
Thanks to an alert question from Councillor Jim King, Osoyoos council avoided being left with the impression that Destination Osoyoos (DO) finished 2023 with a financial surplus of nearly a quarter million dollars.
In fact, the town’s tourism marketing agency finished the year $238,298 in the hole after expenses exceeded revenues by that amount.
During her annual financial review presentation to council this week, DO Executive Director Kelley Glazer displayed a slide showing revenues of $1.145 million and expenditures of $1.383 million. Then she went on to discuss the difference of $238,298 as if it were a surplus.
“Typically (we) carry over roughly this amount of money every year,” she said.
She said DO has almost no income from December to February, mainly because the Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT) program revenue “is always two months behind. … This is a carry-over number that allows us to continue to function.”
The MRDT is a three-per-cent tax on hotel and motel charges, which goes directly to promoting the tourism industry.
Following Glazer’s presentation, King pointed out that according to her own slide show, expenditures exceed revenues and that the difference was a deficit, not a surplus.
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I am backwards,” Glazer said. She said that she has been concentrating on DO’s 2024 program recently and didn’t pay close enough attention to the 2023 report.
“At the end of 2023, we went in the hole by $238,298. … Thank you for bringing that to my attention . . . That’s a big booboo on my part,” she said.
Recovering quickly, Glazer said the bad financial numbers for late 2023 “was a direct result of the travel ban.”
A Destination Osoyoos slide from the tourism organization’s Executive Director Kelley Glazer.
In August last year the province temporarily banned tourist travel to parts of the Okanagan, including Osoyoos, so that temporary accommodation would remain available for residents forced from their homes by wildfires up and down the valley.
Reservations plummeted. “August and September tanked and never really recovered,” said Glazer.
King also had a question about the amount of money DO currently has in the bank. “You’re sitting with a million dollars in cash. Isn’t that a bit excessive for a non-profit?” he asked.
Glazer assured him that the cash on hand is a fluid situation and that it goes up when money comes in and then drops when invoices are paid.
The bulk of DO’s expenditures are in marketing, which comprised $839,007 out of a total of $1.383 million in 2023. This represents a 28 per cent jump over 2022 figures.
And the primary source of income is the MRDT, which contributed $863,818 of $1.145 million.
