People who stay at Vernon's hotels and motels are now paying a bit more when they check out. The city's tourism manager Michelle Jefferson says a two percent hotel tax, has received provincial approval. "The additional hotel room tax kicked in on March 1 which was Monday, so the (operators) are starting to collect that now. It is remitted at the end of the month to the province and then it does come back to us so we're going to see that additional flow of revenues come back to us very soon." The revenue will be used for tourism marketing. It was originally forecast to generate $400,000 but that could be lower due to the economy. Mayor Wayne Lippert says the tax is charged in many other cities including Penticton and Kelowna.
He tells Kiss FM, "There certainly hasn't been any indication it's affected visitors there, and if anything with the extra marketing dollars they've had it's been an improvement, and lead to an increase in visitations." The tax is charged at accommodations within the City of Vernon. It does not impact the hotels at Silver Star Mountain where the owners have chosen not to be involved at this time.
2 comments:
Yeah, plus there's the simple fact that Silver Star is not in the City.
But if this wasn't an issue, it begs the question; could accommodation owners in Vernon choose not to be involved at this time?
This needs to be streamlined-Silver Star must be a part of this-as Silver Star and Predator go,so follows Vernon!
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