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By Alison Sandstrom

COVID-19

P.A. suspends Destination Marketing Levy

Apr 7, 2020 | 2:07 PM

Prince Albert city council has voted to suspend the Destination Marketing Levy for the year 2020.

Since 2017, a tax was applied to hotels and used to attract events to the city and support their development. But since the pandemic has led to the cancellation of major events in Prince Albert for the foreseeable future, councillors decided to put collection of the levy on hold until 2021.

If hotels continue to charge guests the tax on their room bills, they will still have to pay into the fund.

“We will be doing spot checks and if hotels are still charging for it and collecting it, then they will be billed for that amount,” Mayor Greg Dionne told paNOW after the meeting. “We’ve had experiences in the past. That’s why we had to do it.”

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Coronet Hotel General Manager Mona Selanders welcomed the suspension of the tax amid what are unprecedented difficult times for the hospitality industry.

She explained what’s perhaps most disappointing as a hotelier, is just how busy hotels and the entire city of Prince Albert was set to be this spring.

“There were so many events that were slated to occur, it would have been absolutely remarkable,” she said. “We’ve gone from remarkable in terms of the numbers of people that would have been in our city, to remarkable how quiet our city is.”

Prince Albert was scheduled to host two massive events in April. The city’s hotels were preparing to welcome some of the country’s top teenage hockey talent for the Esso Cup and athletes from First Nations across Saskatchewan for the Tony Cote Winter Games. But the COVID-19 pandemic ground the country to a halt and forced cancellations of both events.

“The first of March, if you’d asked any of us what was going to happen in April, we would have said we’re going to be busier than we remember being for some time,” Selanders said. “It’s just unbelievable what has occurred and how quickly.”

The Destination Marketing Levy fee brings in around $350,000 annually. Its reserve currently sits at a balance of $528,861. Collection of the tax is set to resume in 2021.

Despite the temporary closure of several hotels in the city, Selanders remains optimistic about the industry’s future.

“I think we’ll all still be here when this passes, the hotel business is a pretty resilient bunch of folks,” she said. “If people would just follow the [public health] rules, we’ll be back quicker.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom