Tourism Prince George has received approval from local hotels to move forward with raising the hotel tax.
The organisation needed 51% of the city’s rooms and hotel owners on board, but got a yes from 67% of owners in control of 74% of rooms in the city.
Tourism PG is looking to increase the tax from 2% to 3%.
“The extra percent represents about $400,000 for our funding” CEO Erica Hummel said “So we are going to be spending those dollars on what we call some of the ‘best bet’ markets.”
Those markets include attracting major sporting events and conferences to the city as well as marketing Prince George’s outdoor adventure assets.
Hummel says the hotel tax represents about 75% of their current funding, “When the first hotel tax was put in place here in 2010 that’s when the Tourism PG Society was formed and our Board of Directors assembled. It’s a significant amount of funding for destination marketing.”
The plan will go before City Council on Monday, however Councillors have previously supported the idea so it is expected to pass easily. The provincial government will then study the tax plan and sign off through legislation. Hummel expects to receive a response from the province by mid 2017.
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