OSOYOOS TIMES-January 27, 2010

By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times

A memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month will allow for Destination Osoyoos (DO) to provide tourism marketing services to the Town of Osoyoos, the NK’MIP Resort Association and the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS).
The trio of organizations will contribute towards $150,000 worth of funding that DO will use to carry out marketing services for the entire Osoyoos area.
Through the agreement, the Town will contribute $72,876, the RDOS will contribute $12,000 and the resort association will contribute $15,124, with the remainder of the funding, a total of $50,000, coming from monies collected through the two-per-cent Additional Hotel Room Tax.
The previous contract between the Town and DO, where the Town contributed $226,000 to the organization to provide tourism marketing and economic development services, expired Dec. 31.
While the new contract has not been officially finalized, the agreement between the three parties and DO, which was announced on Jan. 22, takes effect immediately.
Barry Romanko, the Town’s chief administrative officer, said the parties have agreed to meet before the beginning of April to put the final touches on the contract and sign off on the deal.
Last September, the Town and DO announced that their relationship would undergo a major change where the marketing of Osoyoos’s $70-million-a-year tourism industry would fall within DO’s realm while the Town would carry out economic development services.
The new arrangements regarding DO’s mandate are the result of four months of negotiations last year where DO’s services were reviewed, as well as public input taken at a summit on the community’s economic development concerns which took place last April.
Romanko said the reason the new contract was not ready before the expiration of DO’s prior contract at the end of last year was because the Town had “second thoughts” about providing the lion’s share of funding to DO on its own.
He added that DO had informed the Town that it needed $150,000 to carry out its marketing program.
An earlier form of the agreement had the Town committing to provide DO with $120,000 for tourism marketing.
In November, however, the Town began considering bringing in partners to help contribute money towards DO’s mandate and, through a series of meetings, the other partners were brought on board and the funding amount was increased, Romanko said.
When asked why the partners and DO had settled on a three-year deal as opposed to the previous five-year agreement or even a contract with a year-by-year renewal, Romanko said planning for five years is “a little bit too far ahead.”
With the new contract being finalized this year, he added, three-year deals will allow for each new council to examine and modify the contract when it comes up for renewal.
The next municipal election will be held in 2011 and the new contract will be up for renewal in 2012.

Funding contributions determined by beds

How much each partner contributes to the funding, at least when it comes to the Town and the resort association, was calculated by looking at how many hotel or resort beds each partner had within its area.
The Town has 1,089 beds while the resort association, which represents Osoyoos Indian Band businesses in the Osoyoos area and encompasses the Spirit Ridge Vineyard and Resort, has 226.
Chris Bower, chair of the association, said the partnership will mean more efficiency when it comes to how each group spends its marketing money.
He added that it makes sense to have the three organizations work together because the ultimate goal is to market the entire Osoyoos area.
Mark Pendergraft, director for RDOS Area A, said the partners didn’t come up with a “scientific way” to calculate the RDOS contribution to the funding agreement since, unlike the Town or Spirit Ridge, Area A’s economy is not as driven by the accommodations industry.
Instead, he said, the partners looked at Area A’s businesses that depend on tourism such as fruit stands, wineries, campsites and motels to determine the RDOS’s role in the new partnership.
The RDOS has contributed $12,000 towards DO’s efforts for the past several years.
Pendergraft said next year the trio of partners will look at developing a more specific formula for how much each organization contributes towards DO’s mandate.

DO to announce new executive director soon

Derek Noske, chair of DO’s board of directors, said DO’s new tourism marketing strategy will include more input from local businesses.
An announcement is also expected in the next week or two about a successor to Glenn Mandziuk, DO’s former chief executive officer.
Noske said the CEO position was “tailored” for Mandziuk since DO was responsible for tourism marketing and economic development services during his tenure and so, with the change to DO’s mandate, the new head of the organization will be an executive director.
On March 5, DO will hold its annual general meeting at the Watermark Beach Resort and a new board of directors will be introduced, Noske said.
Under the new partnership, Bower, who is DO’s past-chair, will become a non-voting member of the board along with a representative from the Town and the RDOS.
DO will also remain based out of the Osoyoos Visitor Centre.

Town to assume economic development duties

As for the Town’s new economic development responsibilities, Romanko said council has given its formal approval for Town staff to hire an economic development officer and a job posting for the position will go out in the next week or two.
The officer will have an economic development function, he added, but will also be focused on some visitor service matters and sustainability projects in the community.
For example, Romanko said, the officer will likely be working with the business community to develop environmentally friendly projects.
The Town also takes over administration of Osoyoos’ revenue of approximately $200,000 per year from the provincial Resort Municipality Fund, which is collected through the hotel room tax and goes towards local tourism-related improvements.
However, DO will continue to work closely with the Osoyoos tourism industry, through the local Tourism Advisory Committee, to co-ordinate how that money is spent.
Mayor Stu Wells said what that means is the money from the hotel room tax will go to the Town, but DO will help direct how the cash is used for tourism marketing.
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