Sunshine Coast Tourism (SCT) is getting ready to renew its accommodation tax and the destination marketing organization is predicting it will be easier to get support this time around.
The tax, known formally as a Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT), is a two per cent levy on room fees charged by accommodation providers in the Sunshine Coast and qathet regional districts.
Since coming into force in August 2016, the MRDT has brought in more than $900,000 to supplement $81,000 in local government funding and SCT’s other revenue sources.
In an update for Sechelt councillors on July 24, SCT interim executive director Annie Wise said the organization has to file for renewal by Feb. 1, 2021 and will, once again, have to demonstrate support from at least 51 per cent of the accommodation providers operating four rooms or more.
“The first time around that took us a number of years, and it was quite challenging,” Wise said. “We feel confident, because we’ve done an amazing job with those funds in the years that we’ve had it, that we can successfully get those signatures again. We’ll be looking to council to help support us and be a partner in that.”
When asked by Coun. Eric Scott about the challenges SCT might need council’s support overcoming, Wise responded that connecting with some accommodation owners can be difficult.
“There are lots of absentee owners,” she said. “Some of those owners are overseas … so sometimes that can be a challenge, but the ones we’re regularly engaged with feel really positively about what we’re doing.
“There a few fairly prominent hotels in Sechelt that I would say look as though they’re not really operating, or not regularly accepting guests… Those types of properties are difficult to get to sign on and to have communication with,” Wise said. “If there’s a relationship there that [councillors] may have and we can sit down and have a meeting with the owners and help share with them what we do and provide some background and information, that would be extremely helpful for us.”
Mayor Darnelda Siegers also asked whether the group is considering applying for an increase from two to three per cent when it files for the MRDT renewal.
Wise said the SCT board has not made a final decision, but is leaning toward keeping the rate at two per cent.
Wise added that changes in the provincial rules that bring short-term rental operators under the MRDT regime have helped address some concerns about the tax being applied only to bigger accommodation providers. “I think that will really help our case,” she said.
The update from Wise also included news that traffic at the Sechelt Visitor Information Centre is up four per cent from this time last year.
SCT took over the contract for the Visitor Information Centre in Sechelt in March, bringing both lower Sunshine Coast centres into the SCT fold.
Wise also said SCT’s recent fall marketing campaign led to an eight per cent increase in room revenues, a 50 per cent uptick in website traffic and 20,000 referrals to local businesses in the span of three months.
Wise said one of the main areas for potential growth in the Sechelt area and the Sunshine Coast as a whole is in facilities that could host small conferences and retreats – especially in the shoulder season.
She said Sunshine Coast Tourism had to walk away from a chance to bid on hosting the Mountain Bike Tourism Symposium last fall, despite the natural fit for a region where mountain biking is a big attraction.
“We just didn’t have the facilities,” she said.
