Sunshine Coast Tourism (SCT) is again advocating for the two per cent hotel tax that SCT says could bring in at least $250,000 annually for the Sunshine Coast tourism industry.
More than 50 communities in B.C. have already adopted the hotel tax – or Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT). SCT president Celia Robben has been requesting letters of support for the MRDT from all of the local governments on the Coast.
“The reason that communities opt into it is because that money comes back to the community,” Robben said.
So far the Town of Gibsons and District of Sechelt have provided letters. SCT has also requested letters from the Sunshine Coast and Powell River regional districts and will be requesting a letter from the Sechelt First Nation this week.
“The other piece is that a majority of the collecting accommodations sector also has to voice their approval,” Robben said. “We’ve been actively consulting with that sector over the past few months and we are just at that majority point.”
The MRDT is an additional two per cent tax that would be added on to tourist accommodations. Revenue from the MRDT can only be spent on tourism initiatives.
There are different ways for the MRDT to be implemented. In some cases it is collected by the municipality, then allocated to sectors of the tourism industry based on recommendations from the governing body of that municipality’s tourism industry.
The SCT, however, is recommending that the potential funds collected through the MRDT should go straight to the SCT.
“In our case, since we’re three municipalities, two regional districts, and three First Nations,” Robben said. “We have opted to go with the approach where Sunshine Coast Tourism would actually be the eligible entity which would receive, directly, the dollars from the entire region, rather than have it go through each of the individual governments.”
The allocation of funding is a bit of a problem for the Sunshine Coast Accommodation Association (SCAA). Vice president of SCAA Colin MacLean said that he is not entirely against the tax.
“We feel we could support the MRDT if the accommodators would get something out of it,” MacLean said. “We feel that by supporting the MRDT in the current format, people really aren’t getting anything out of it whatsoever.”
The MRDT was originally requested for the Sunshine Coast by the SCT in 2012, but 26 out of 46 accommodators voted against it.
