Valemount Signs Tourism Revenue Sharing Deal

By 250 News

 the Village of Valemount  will  receive about  $260,000 over five years.  That's because it has  signed a Resort Municipality Revenue Sharing agreement with the Province, allowing it to share a portion of hotel room tax to invest in local resort-oriented projects and programs.

Under the agreement, Valemount has to add a special 2 per cent  tax to hotel bills.

The money will be used  by Valemount to redevelop and revitalize the Cranberry Marsh-Starratt Wildlife Sanctuary by building new trails into new habitat, completing the circle route and upgrading existing trails for wheelchair accessibility. As well, two new seasonal festivals will be launched: the Valemount Bird Watching Festival and an annual Winter Festival.

"These investments mean we'll have so much more to offer visitors to our community and we'll be able to establish ourselves as a favourite stop along Highway 5," said Valemount Mayor Jeannette Townsend. "We're pleased that by enhancing our pedestrian network with additional walkways, trails and boardwalks, we're also helping to reduce greenhouse  gases."

Under the Resort Municipality Revenue Sharing program, the community receives a share of the provincial hotel room tax, an amount based on a formula that takes into account the level of tourist accommodation in the community, relative to other B.C. communities. To be eligible, municipalities must have tourism economies or be designated as a "mountain resort municipality" under the Local Government Act.

Valemount joins Whistler, Golden, Rossland, Radium Hot Springs and Harrison Hot Springs  who already have similar agreements with the Province.

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