Destination Osoyoos asks town council to support new hotel tax
Destination Osoyoos is hoping to get the town's support for a new hotel tax.
Michelle Jefferson, Destination Osoyoos (DO) visitor information manager spoke to Osoyoos Town Council at the March 7 public meeting.
She was there to request the town to establish a bylaw to allow for the collection of an additional two per cent hotel room tax (AHRT) from accommodators.
The new tax would go toward marketing initiatives to boost tourist visitation and increase tourist revenue, with a particular emphasis on the shoulder seasons.
The move, according to Jefferson, is to make Osoyoos more competitive with other Okanagan destinations like Penticton and Kelowna.
The additional tax will mean more revenue to promote our area and increased investment opportunities in the tourism industry, Jefferson said.
Other attempts in the past to implement the tax have failed.
At that time there was a lack of guarantee to the accommodators that the tourism industry would control the use of funds, said Jefferson.
This is critical because they are the ones collecting it and they need to understand how it's being used to benefit them.
There was also a lack of industry structure to administer the funds, Jefferson added.
The hotel industry has requested that the funds be controlled by the tourism industry through Destination Osoyoos.
DO will work with a Tourism Advisory Committee (TAC), made up of members in the tourism industry. TAC will be heavily weighted toward the accommodators but will also include representatives from golf and recreation, restaurants, attractions, wine and agri-tourism.
TAC and Destination Osoyoos will work together on promoting Osoyoos, said Jefferson.DO will be accountable to TAC in regards to how this money is spent. We're merely the active hands that will be involved.rnJefferson said that 71 per cent of properties questioned about the proposed tax were in favour of implementation. Estimated revenues, should the tax be implemented, are between $145,000-$200,000 per year.
Jefferson stressed that this would be marketing money, not money to create infrastructure.
The AHRT was originally implemented in the larger centres of Vancouver, Victoria and Whistler in 1988.
Kelowna, Penticton, Merritt and Kamloops, along with many other B.C. tourism communities have implemented or soon will implement the tax to assist them in marketing their communities, Jefferson said.
The province will charge a monthly fee – $20 per property per month – to collect the money and then hand it back to the community.
I'm pleased to see it is being accepted by a lot of people. I think it is really going to be good for us, remarked councillor Tom Shields.
Councillor Bud Fraser said he knew that the tax idea had been worked on for quite a while.
It's a heck of an idea. In the long run, places that have implemented the tax have found it to be a benefit, he said.
Accommodators in favour of the tax feel that it may be worthwhile if the money is spent to promote tourism in Osoyoos.
Time will tell, said the McCaskill family, managers of Safari Beach Resort, who were unsure but were leaning toward being in favour of the idea.
While, according to Jefferson, a majority of accommodators favour implementation, there are some who are undecided, who need further information or who are opposed altogether.
The Hotel Motel Association is meeting to respond to the proposed AHRT and to gather more information.
Three local hoteliers opposed to the tax, Osoyoos' Frank Stadnyk of The Poplars Motel, Sandra Harbridge of Sun Beach Motel and the manager of the Adriatic Hotel, are opposed.
Concerns were stated about citizens being overtaxed already, hurting the tourists' pocketbooks and the loss of business as a result of an additional two per cent tax. There was also a concern that the negative impact of imposing the tax will not outweigh the benefits of the increased marketing of Osoyoos.
Mayor Slater said council would take the matter under consideration.
