Sunshine Coast Tourism (SCT) is proposing a new “visitor services strategy” for Gibsons that includes a major renovation or replacement of the Visitor Information Centre at Pioneer Park and replacing the Travel Ambassadors on BC Ferries with interactive, touch-screen kiosks.
Meanwhile, Sechelt and the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) are taking a closer look at how they fund the organization.
Local governments from the upper and lower Sunshine Coast put $81,000 into SCT this year. The SCRD contributed $20,000, with the District of Sechelt paying $12,000, the Town of Gibsons $7,200 and the Sechelt Indian Government District $1,000. The two per cent room tax (MRDT), which kicked in last year, brought in about $265,000.
Gibsons, Sechelt and the SCRD also fund visitor information centres, through contracts with the Community Services Society in the case of Sechelt and the Chambers of Commerce in Gibsons and Pender Harbour. The Travel Ambassadors are also funded through local government grants.
SCT executive director Paul Kamon appeared before Gibsons council’s committee of the whole on Dec. 19 to outline the new strategy, which includes taking over the $45,000 visitor services contract from the Gibsons Chamber of Commerce.
The cost of renovation or replacement of the Visitor Information Centre, which is owned by the Town, is estimated at between $215,000 and $275,000 and Kamon told the committee money could be available through the Island Coastal Economic Trust (ICE-T) or the BC Rural Dividend Fund.
He said the ferry kiosks, which SCT would like to have on all three routes linking the Coast to the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, would be funded through SCT’s budget.
Kamon said the approach to visitor services, through Destination BC, is changing to something closer to concierge services than the traditional marketing and information role. “I’m looking to build something that’s small and innovative and create more value through digital services,” he said.
SCT is also in talks with the Community Services Society about taking over the Sechelt Visitor Information Centre contract, which was renewed for a five-year term in 2016.
Mayor Wayne Rowe said Gibsons council generally supports having one entity deal with tourism, as long as it’s “careful not to lose the local identity, the local promotion of the Town of Gibsons.”
The Visitor Information Centre building is already on the list of capital projects for consideration when Gibsons council holds budget meetings in February. The SCT 2018 funding request will also be on the table.
Sechelt and the SCRD have already had a first look at SCT’s 2018 funding. At its Dec. 14 meeting, the SCRD board passed a resolution asking SCT to provide more detail heading into the first round of budget talks, including “their 2017 expenses, income coming from the Municipal and Regional District Tax funds, 2018 projected budget and strategic plans for marketing the Sunshine Coast.”
Directors have been discussing whether the amount of funding they provide is still appropriate, given the new source of revenue through the MRDT. SCRD chief administrative officer Janette Loveys told directors it’s not unusual to change the level of support from local governments in areas where an MRDT is collected – however, she could find no examples of a complete withdrawal of funding.
SCRD chair Bruce Milne, who’s also mayor of Sechelt, said one option is holding the line when it comes to increases.
“What I think we’re going to start considering [in Sechelt], and what I’d like to see considered, is perhaps just freezing the contribution so it doesn’t change,” he said. “Over time, with inflation, the SCRD’s $20,000 contribution and Sechelt’s $12,000 contribution would become miniscule… That way we’re living up to the letter and the spirit of the expectation that the funding should not change.”
