N.B. tourism industry frustrated with premier over hotel tax decision, calls for minister’s resignation

The Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick (TIANB) is frustrated by the provincial government’s decision not to implement a tourism levy they say would help attract travellers from regions across the country.

TIANB has been asking the Gallant government to look at creating legislation that would add a 3 per cent levy to hotel room bills in the province.  It would collect extra money to support tourism marketing initiatives and tourism development in New Brunswick through the creation of a Destination Marketing Fund.

The fund would put New Brunswick on the same page as Nova Scotia, Quebec and other jurisdictions across the country where the levy is charged.

Dan Myers, chair of TIANB’s board of directors, said the organization is requesting a meeting with the premier to discuss their views. While there is a meeting scheduled between industry and representatives from the premier’s office, the organization wants a direct meeting.

READ MORE: New Brunswick tourism industry frustrated by decision on levy

Myers said Gallant had been clear since 2016 that the current government would not implement a levy under their current mandate, but he said with the upcoming election and a new mandate if the Liberals take office again, TIANB was under the impression Gallant would be open to conversation about enabling legislation if re-elected, under the new mandate.

The government confirmed in a news release on April 6 it would not be implementing a levy.

“It’s really frustrating, and blindsided because we were not expecting it. We’ve had one meeting with the minister to say that we plan to pursue this… and we request his support. We were led to believe that we did have his support and the government’s support on the initiative and  they came out with the announcement a couple weeks ago, really did blindside us as an industry,” Myers said.

Myers said the organization is now calling on the province’s tourism minister John Ames to resign.

“Any kind of investment in tourism automatically generates a return. We have a $3.19 million return on investment on anything that’s spent on marketing. A levy could be up to $6 million or more of additional marketing dollars for the province and that would put us on a competitive playing field with the other regions around our province. Nova Scotia has various degrees of it, P.E.I., Maine, Quebec, and there’s a number of regions in New Brunswick doing it as well with great success,” Myers said.

READ MORE: Saint John, N.B., expects 19 per cent increase in cruise ship passengers in 2018

He said there are levies in some regions of New Brunswick, but wants a provide-wide one to be legislated.

“We currently do collect in Saint John, Miramichi, Bathurst, Edmundston and Saint Andrews,” Myers said.

He said those communities use the marketing dollars to reinvest into their region and attract business.

Premier Brian Gallant said Tuesday the idea of putting a tourism levy would mean taking more money away from New Brunswickers.

Gallant said he believes over 50 per cent of hotels are occupied by New Brunswickers.

“We’ve just been very clear and very straightforward,” Gallant said.  “They’re asking for the minister to resign because they didn’t get their way. I mean, that’s a bit unfortunate and I would also underline that we’ve made commitments that have never been seen before of investments in tourism and our tourism infrastructure.”

Myers said the number of New Brunswickers staying in hotels and travelling across the province is actually only 43 per cent.  He said of those people, 23 per cent are already paying it in different regions throughout the province and over half of them are businesses that are collecting the dollars back.

Myers said it’s a very “small component” of New Brunswickers that would be paying it. He said those New Brunswickers who travel outside of the province to places like Halifax or Toronto are paying that marketing levy everywhere else they go, and said tourists who visit most parts of New Brunswick aren’t paying it.

He said TIANB applauds the Liberal government’s $100-million invest in tourism infrastructure upgrades and the department’s goal to grow tourism-related GDP to $2 billion by 2025.

“As an industry, we know what we need in our region and this is our way of offering to help and partner, a true partnership with the department to drive tourism into the province,” Myers said.

Fredericton Chamber of Commerce CEO Krista Ross said they are on board with a levy and said it would benefit the industry,

“Basically the money that is collected from people who stay in hotels is then used to market the local region externally,” Ross said.  “The return on that is very, very good for every dollar that’s collected and spent on marketing they anticipate well in excess of $3 million in return.”

Ross said that could mean an extra $20 million in spending on tourism in the province that isn’t currently happening.

“If other jurisdictions that we compete for tourism dollars with, people make choices as to where they’re going to spend their money, so if we can market to those people then we have more of an opportunity to bring them here.  So by not collecting this levy, and by not then talking to potential tourists we have a disadvantage over other communities and other provinces and other regions that are doing,” Ross said.