The Sunshine Coast Tourism Association is looking to add more funding to their budget through a two per cent room tax. Tourists staying in local accommodations would pay the tax and it would triple the association's current funding for marketing the Sunshine Coast.
Currently the SCTA has a budget of approximately $125,000 a year. It's estimated the new room tax would generate $250,000 a year.
"You can just think of what you could actually do with that kind of money. We could actually have full time staff. What a concept," said SCTA president Celia Robben.
Right now the SCTA works on a 50/50 funding model between tourism businesses and government funding. That government funding comes from local government and some provincial grants, when available.
"The opportunity then to add a third leg of funding to that model, one that is not dependent upon annual budget decisions, one that is not dependent on membership, but really comes from the consumer and actually improves, is really exciting," she said. "As your marketing grows tourism you grow your funding dollars from that part of the model, because the more visitors the more hotel tax that you generate."
The two per cent room tax is not a new concept. It was actually set up by the province as a way to fund tourism marketing activities and currently 50 jurisdictions throughout B.C. have implemented the tax.
"You name the city, they've got it," Robben noted.
In order to apply the room tax locally, the SCTA needs to apply to the province.
"So we've just started that process and what it takes is that you have to have buy in and agreement from your local government entities. So we have met and have had a couple discussions with them on the Lower Coast," she said. "We have not had discussions yet in Powell River and that is pending. We are setting that up because this would be an entire region application."
The second step is to get approval to levy the tax from over 50 per cent of the accommodators on the Sunshine Coast.
"That's what we're doing is making the rounds now to introduce the concept to all of the accommodation owners on the Coast because they have to agree that this would be a good thing, that this would do positive things for their businesses because they are the ones who actually have to collect the tax," she said.
Robben expects the SCTA to work on educating accommodators about the benefits of the two per cent room tax throughout the spring.
If consent is given by the majority of accommodators on the Coast, the SCTA will have to go back to local governments to get a letter of support for the new room levy, which needs to accompany their application to the province.
"I would hope that our application is actually into the ministry in the fall," Robben said.
The worry that a two per cent room tax may deter people from staying on the Sunshine Coast is unfounded, said Robben, who notes there have been no reductions in bookings in other communities that have instituted the tax.
"In fact you're at a disadvantage if you don't have it because your name is not out there as much as those that have the greater dollars in order to market," she said.
