Under the proposed changes to Drumheller’s Business License Bylaw, campgrounds and RV resorts would pay an annual business license fee of $63.81 per site per year. Hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, lodges and inns would pay $496.78 per room per year.
mailphoto by Michele Scott

    Drumheller Town Council was presented with the draft tourism levy as part of the changes to the Business License Bylaw at the regular Council meeting Monday night, January 26. All three readings of the byaw are scheduled to come before Council at the regular Monday meeting, February 9.
    The mandatory levy would be collected by businesses from their customers in two areas of businesses that serve Drumheller’s tourism industry: lodging and RV parks/campgrounds.
    “We don’t want, in any way, to take money from the tourism operators in the town,” said Travel Drumheller’s Chris Curtis.
    Curtis said with this in mind, the levy is to have complete flow-through, meaning the total business license fee charged under the proposed bylaw can be recovered by the business through adding a few dollars onto each customer’s/guest’s bill.
    Curtis said the feedback received from the businesses was overwhelmingly in favour of a mandatory fee, rather than a voluntary fee, so that any one business would not be put at a competitive disadvantage.
    The first businesses in Drumheller to collect the levy would be in the lodging sector, which covers hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, lodges, and inns.
    Under the business license bylaw change, the lodging sector would pay a rate of $496.78 per room per year. For a motel with 20 rooms, their business license would cost $9,935.60 per year.
    For its calculations to arrive at the yearly room rate, Travel Drumheller used the following criteria:
- The current room inventory in Drumheller, is 560 rooms
- Historical average for occupancy based on the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, which averaged to 58%
- Hisorical average daily rate based on the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, which averaged at $117.33
    Those businesses in the lodging sector that are open less than six months a year can provide proof of this to the license inspector and would only be required to pay 75 per cent of the required fees.
    The second category to collect the new levy would be RV resorts and campgrounds, based on an estimate of $63.81 per site per year.
    An approval of the business bylaw would mean a campground with 20 sites would pay an annual business license fee of $1,276.20.
    There are 550 sites in Drumheller, but Travel Drumheller included campgrounds and RV resorts in the area that may want to join and contribute to the destination marketing fund.
    For its calculations to arrive at the yearly site rate, Travel Drumheller used the following criteria:
- 1635 sites at RV resorts and campgrounds in the area
- Historical average for occupancy based on the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, which averaged at 51%
- Historical average for daily rated based on the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, which came to $34
- Based on industry performance during six months of operations for the three years
    The payment schedule for businesses would be collected four times per year:
March 31               15 per cent
June 30                   25 per cent
September 30        50 per cent
December 31         10 per cent

    In the event of a slow tourist season, Curtis said the slow season’s earnings would be reflected in the calculation of the following year’s business license fees.
    He said any challenges local businesses would face in their collection and remittance of the fee, Travel Drumheller would work with them to find a solution.