Drumheller Town Council passed changes to the Town’s business bylaw, allowing for the collection of a tourism levy/charge from the local lodging sector, at its regular Monday meeting, March 23.
The Mayor and majority of Council believe the move is a positive step for Drumheller, as the fee will be for the destination marketing fund (DMF)of Travel Drumheller, to fund enhanced marketing of the town to tourists.
“I voted in support of it, I think it’s the way to go,” said Mayor Terry Yemen.
“It seems like this is getting to be the norm. It’s going to generate funding for the industry. And especially as I said earlier, when we look at small Mom and Pop organizations, the amount of dollars this will generate - there’s no way they could ever afford that type of a budget to do their marketing.”
Business owner Shelley Rymal of Sage Valley Marketing sees the fee collection as a positive step for the town.
“I think I have to agree with the Councillors that were for it. Councillor Tom Zariski had explained the bylaw very well - it’s used to enhance the town, and tourism in the town, and the tourists that are coming here are paying for it, instead of it coming out of the taxpayer’s pockets.”
With the first scheduled payment of the fee due June 30, 2015, two members of Council remained in opposition, voting against the passing of the bylaw, which included the attached Schedule B to allow the Town to collect the tourism fee for Travel Drumheller.
“I do not believe it is the municipality’s responsibility to be collecting funds for another organization,” said Councillor Tara McMillan.
The Councillor said while most of Drumheller’s hotel industry seems to support collection of the fee, she believes there’s no reason Travel Drumheller couldn’t engage the businesses and collect the fee on their own, rather than through the Town.
“I was involved in the tourism industry,” said Councillor Sharel Shoff, “so I understand about the tourism levy, I understand about the DMF (destination marketing fund), the Alberta (hotel) tax, etc. But I don’t feel that the Town should be involved in making it a tax or a levy that’s mandatory for those businesses.” Shoff said she thinks the Town is picking on one part of business, the accommodations area, in making the fee mandatory.
Shoff said her research on tourism charges to fund destination marketing showed Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, to name a few, all have voluntary contributions to a DMF, and she heard from a lot of concerned citizens that the business contributions to the fund are mandatory.
Mayor Yemen noted Travel Drumheller’s plans still have to go through its ten member Board of Directors, whom are each involved in the tourism industry.
He noted while the fee is submitted to the Town and forwarded to Travel Drumheller, Council is removed from the process and will receive reports from Travel Drumheller on the progress of the fee collection.
Campgrounds and RV resorts were removed from collecting the fee at Council’s request, and a paragraph was added to the new Schedule B that describes the appeals process available to operators who feel their annual fee does not accurately reflect the financial circumstances of their business.
