Northern BC Tourism Association already does this work with provincial dollars matching private dollars for joint marketing campaigns. Easily any group of hotels could form a marketing plan and have NBCTA partner with them through any number of programs from community specific (which is currently way over funded with no place for the investments) or through partnership funding for specific marketing campaigns.

I think forcing taxation on unwilling parties for marketing efforts is wrong. If the community as a whole needs to be marketed then we have existing programs available funded by the province and the city. This proposal is just an exercise in empire building IMO.

No question that this is an incidious manipulation for greedy purposes !!

STOP IT !!

V.

Initiatives Prince George Should take the lead of the provincial govt.... that is.... now is not the time to be adding new taxes or increasing existing ones.

The nerve of IPG as a non-elected body to "tax" visitors to our city is unbelievable.

Eagleone has hit it on the head.... perhaps it's time to shut down IPG to save the taxpayers of PG a little money is in order.

We're not exactly a tourist destination at the best of times with our well advertised gang crime and all, not to mention the disintegrating world economy.....

Enough of the leeching off of society already.

Better yet, start up a program that the hotel owners who wants to participate in a program which is called the hwy 16 elite hotels, in which the owners are obligated to meet standards. Which should include new bed, carpets and finishing every 8 years. New Bedding every 4 yrs.

Some of the places are pretty much flea bitten dumps.

Typically short sighted responses.

Almost every major centre in BC and Canada has a hotel tax. The agencies that use the monies are accountable to the hoteliers and from what I've seen the marketing and promotion efforts these communties implement are effective and very professional.
I've been typically underwhelmed by the marketing that PG does to try and attract people to stay in our community and any coordinated effort will be much better than the half-baked and underfunded nonsense we've been trying for the past umpteen years.

To suggest that a few hotels should join forces and implement their own group is ludicrous...why should the "slackers" benefit from the efforst of those who see value in growing business for PG??

IPG should be disbanded and the money saved (2.5 Million per year) could be used for other purposes.

Can't argue with you there Palopu. What have they REALLY accomplished since they've been around??? National Broomball Championships???

$ 2.5 million is a lot of potholes filled,

I chuckle when I hear "Almost every major centre in BC and Canada has a hotel tax." Just because everyone else does it, doesn't make it right...

HMMMM... last trip to Edmonton I felt more than a little dirty about paying for the hotel I was staying in to advertise..... it's not like they weren't making enough off of me just on the rate.... Have to say I've found a spot outside Edmonton that doesn't charge a "Tourist Extortion TAX".... that's where I'll be staying in the future....

Not being short sighted at all, paying EXTRA taxes tends to turn people off staying, at least it does me.... Perhaps if IPG had any REAL ideas they might think of promoting Prince George as the destination WITHOUT the "Tourist Extortion TAX"

Yes Realitycheck you are correct. The hotel tax is a reality everywhere except here. We don't gain visitors because of this fact. We in fact loose out because we don't have a good branding campaign for our city. Unless we want to cough up more of our municipal tax dollars to fund this required campaign, I sure in the heck don't.

The hotels don't want it so why is IPG telling them they know better than those actually in the hotel business?

I don't have another 2% to add to my travel expenses thank you very much! Tack that on with the carbon tax how much travelling do you think I will do?

Our wallets are squeezed due to the economy. You can market all you want but do it within your budget like the rest of us have to. The hotels are watching their bottom line as well. I am certain they know what is best for their industry and can do just fine without IPG trying to "help".

Look at it this way, someone has to spend money to advertise and brand the city to tourists.

Would you rather it came out of the resident's pockets (through taxes) or tourist's? Most every other jurisdiction has some form of hotel tax to put into the tourism advertising kitty, why not here?

Seriously people.

Sorry RealityCheck. Yes, there is a hotel tax (8%) in communities across BC & Canada. We're talking about the "additional" tax (+2%) on top of that. This type of tax was designed for the "Whistlers" of the province for the promotion of international and convention business, and once collected must be used for specific hotel industry related purposes. PG Hotels' occupancy rates are derived from regional visitation, mostly from working families using PG as a shopping, supply and health care centre and from industry & gov't., the last group of so called "tourists" you want to tax even more. To be honest I think hotel occupancy rates in PG are pretty reasonable when compared to other centres. Additional marketing is not what is required. PG needs better air, infrastructure, security and a re-gentrification of the downtown core first.

I agree with realitycheck completely. And I believe you will find that "additional" 2% tax in most communities in BC, Civic.

If it is going to add an additional .5M to assist us with properly promoting our city why would you not want to do that? With promotion comes people and people spend money and money will allow us to fix the important wrongs in this city as Civic has pointed out in his/her last sentence. Those are things that definitely need attention.

Who says promotion doesn't get done if we don't have the tax. Northern BC Tourism already has a million dollar budget for that purpose and IPG nearly half that much. If a group of hotels wants to guarantee a standard of quality and form a group that taxes their patrons to team up on advertising... then great for them I say.

Maybe NBCTA and the city can co-ordinate their existing advertising campaigns better for the global advertising of the city and region... instead of using all that public money currently to subsidize specific establishments rather then the region as a whole?

The problem with a tax like this is it may benefit a few large hotels in the downtown, but it will be subsidized by the smaller establishments who are just servicing the regional trade. Ultimately this taxation comes out of the hotels bottom line and maybe some of the smaller one have more specific strategies then the larger hotels.

This is definately an area that Prince George has fallen behind other cities.

I think adding the Hotel Tax could be a good thing. The reason is Prince George could have a good Tourism industry. As a community we have to be prepared to invest into this idea. But sadly, the reality is we don't.

One of the main problems is we don't really have sites/activities to draw people to the city. I had a relative from Europe visit me this past week and thought I would show her the city. Well, once I showed her UNBC and a couple other spots the tour was over. Needless to say, George street was not on the agenda.

Another problem is our hotels/motels in this town. I was responsible for a small conference a year ago and telling my people good hotels to stay at was embarrassing. Other than the Coast and the Casino there wasn't much for nice looking hotels. It will get better with the Four Points & the Sandman. But we still have a lot of work to do.

After looking at the comments I noticed people seem to think that Northern BC Tourism should be promoting Prince George. Although that's true, don't forget the title of the Association, "Northern BC" that means places like Fort St John, Dawson Creek, and Prince Rupert all want the same thing. Those dollars get spent faster than you think.

If you want Prince George to be a nice city we have to invest in it. From what I see in this town most investment dollars go into vehicles that's why all the dealerships have some of the nicest looking buildings in this town. Are dealerships alone going to grow this city?

qwaszxter I think City Council could learn a thing or two from comments like yours.

I can understand that tourism office doesn't want to have someone standing around not doing anything(if there are no tourists). But when would a tourist come to Prince George? Weekends seem obvious. Why don't they reduce their hours during the week and schedule some hours on the weekend. That way it might not cost them additional money. A tourist might wait a couple of hours to get tourist info. But they will give up if they have to wait 2-3 days.

I totally agree that not posting hours of operation, directions, and being totally closed on the weekends seems counterproductive.

Here's a question for you Qwaszxter, what would you think of visiting as a tourist in Prince George?

I'm sure the list isn't too long.

I come into PG alot for business. If the hotels add another tax, I will try to stay with friends instead and simply claim a smaller rate for staying at a private accomadation. Or, I will do my best to get buisness done in less than a day and not have to stay overnight. I'm sick of being taxed to death in this province.

An extra 2% on a $100 hotel room is two extra dollars. If this causes you to change your travel plans, then you probably can't afford to travel to begin with.

I said alot , you goof.

So what's your point? I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that 99% of the people who write on here that they'll 'never' do this or that because of some reason still do it anyway.