— About $340,000 in taxes & funding for tourism is at stake —
(OSOYOOS TIMES — Jan. 24, 2007) —
By Lawrence McMahenrnOsoyoos Times
Last week, Town Council and Destination Osoyoos (DO) held the first of what will be a series of meetings with local hotel and motel operators aimed at building support for a new local two-per-cent hotel room tax.
At stake is at least $340,000 that could be raised from the tax and new government funding to help pay for projects promoting tourism in Osoyoos “ but the steps to get the funding can only be taken if local hoteliers agree to the new tax.
The latest informational meetings have been sparked by the provincial government's offering last May of extra tourism development funding for 13 B.C. resort towns “ including Osoyoos “ to be provided only if they implement a two-per-cent Additional Hotel Room Tax (AHRT) on top of the provincial Hotel Room Tax (HRT) already being applied to hotel guests.
In a July 21, 2006 letter to Council, B.C. Community Services Minister Ida Chong said the additional resort funding given to Osoyoos by the province would be about two per cent of the main HRT now being collected. She said that would amount to a 'resort' grant of about $170,000 per year to the town “ and DO Executive Director Glenn Mandziuk says it could be as much as $200,000-$300,000.
Chong said that resort grant will only be made if Osoyoos implements the two-per-cent AHRT. Money raised by the additional hotel room tax goes directly to the local municipality for new tourism facilities and tourism promotion “ and that could represent at least another $170,000 “ for a total from the resort grant and AHRT of at least $340,000.
The only problem is that nearly two years ago, in the spring of 2005, Council came close to passing the bylaw needed to ask the province to implement the AHRT in town, believing the move had the support of local accommodation operators. But shortly after that, the Osoyoos Hotel Motel Association (OHMA) polled its members and announced that 77 per cent were opposed to the tax. Council immediately killed its draft bylaw.
The hoteliers were not convinced that the tax money would provide any real benefit to the local tourism industry, and some felt the additional cost to visitors might even hurt tourism.
That was even though at that time, Council and Destination Osoyoos planned to establish a Tourism Advisory Committee (TAC), made up of hoteliers and other local tourism industry representatives, to make decisions on how to spend the money raised by the AHRT.
Mandziuk says now, in light of the provincial government's latest resort funding offer, Council has asked DO to meet with local hotel and motel operators and provide information about how an AHRT would work.
He says the first in the series of meetings was held at the Sonora Community Centre on January 15, with Mayor John Slater and Council hosting. About 16 of Osoyoos' estimated 28 hotel and motel operators attended, along with representatives of DO.
Mandziuk says Tourism Kelowna officials at the meeting offered insights about the AHRT process and the impact it has on the community and its tourism business. The Destination Osoyoos head says more than 25 B.C. communities now collect the AHRT, and Okanagan communities like Kelowna and Penticton are using their new AHRT funds to aggressively market their tourism products.
Mayor Slater says, With funds available from the AHRT for marketing and supporting our accommodations ¦ and tourism product development, Osoyoos would be poised to achieve even greater benefits not only for our businesses, but for our visitors and residents as well.rnSlater adds, We have a very narrow window of opportunity to make this happen for our town.rnMandziuk says DO will now be going door-to-door to talk to each hotel and motel operator in Osoyoos about the AHRT idea.
He adds it is also likely that further informational meetings will be held on the new provincial funding for resort towns, and speakers may be brought in.
It will be up to Council as to if and when it wants to introduce a bylaw to create the additional hotel room tax “ but Minister Chong says the province's rules for the local AHRT are that it must have the support of at least 51 per cent of the establishments that would be required to collect the additional tax, representing at least 50 per cent of the total number of rooms.
