Drumheller Town Council may remove ccampgrounds from the proposed bylaw to collect a local tourism levy/surcharge, and revisit the idea at a later date.
A number of lodging and campground operators were not pleased with the proposed bylaw changes to allow for collection of a tourism levy/surcharge within the Town of Drumheller.
Mayor Terry Yemen said Council has heard opposition and a lot of concerns over the proposal, and the result is changes to the proposed bylaw, requested by Council at their regular Monday meeting on February 23.
The amendments requested by Council are: exclusion from paying the tourism levy/surcharge for establishments with three rooms or less; collecting the fee beginning later in the year, during either the second, third, or fourth quarters; and removing campgrounds from Schedule B.
“Council- I think they’re being responsible they want to get as much information, they want to hear from the stakeholders,” the Mayor said.
“And we’ve asked for an additional period of time. There were some amendments made, and its looking like possibly they’ll just remove the whole issue of the campgrounds, and it’ll be a discussion that’ll have to be done at another date.”
“And again, we have to emphasize, this is not the Town of Drumheller Council’s initiative. This was Travel Drumheller’s, but it needs to go through the process to give it some teeth, so Travel Drumheller is going to have to go back to the shareholders and talk about it.”
Yemen said he understands Travel Drumheller has offered to meet individually with each stakeholder regarding collection of the tourism levy/surcharge.
He notes approval of collection of the fee is required to go through Council to give the collection the legality it needs, and he is not aware of any other way the levy/surcharge could be collected.
The levy/surcharge would be mandatory, that is guests at hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts located in the Town of Drumheller would be required to pay the fee to the lodging operator.
Schedule B attached to the business bylaw would allow the Town to collect funds and forward 100 per cent of those funds collected on to Travel Drumheller, to support a destination marketing fund (DMF). The main purpose of the fund would be used to increase marketing to the valley, to bring in more visitors, and try to increase tourism in the few months before and after the height of the summer tourist season.
Despite the bylaw delay, the Mayor thinks the addition of a tourism levy/surcharge would be a positive step to take.
“We are more than just a tourism town, but 500,000 people, they can’t be wrong. Tourism plays a big part of what we are and who we are, and we should embrace it and move forward with it.”
Council will review the bylaw with amendments at their regular committee meeting March 2, then bring the amended bylaw back to Council, and try to move forward with its second and third reading.
Council passed first reading of the business bylaw at its regular meeting February 9, 2015.
