Visitors to Barrie will see a new fee tacked onto their hotel bills beginning in January.
At city council on June 18, councillors voted in favour of implementing the Municipal Accomodation Tax (MAT) in Barrie.
The three-year contract with Tourism Barrie will impose a four per cent tax on all hotel bills in the city, beginning Jan. 1, 2019.
Revenue from the tax will be used to boost the tourism industry within the city.
According to a staff report, Tourism Barrie will receive 50 per cent of the revenue from the MAT to be used for marketing purposes.
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The city plans to put its portion of the MAT revenue into a Tourism Reserve Fund, to be used for new capital assets, studies, products or marketing campaigns to support tourism.
As part of the deal, a tourism working group will also be established to study and review the program each year of the contract. The group will include two members of Barrie city council, one member from the Downtown BIA, two representatives from the Barrie Hotel Association, two members from Tourism Barrie and a representative from the Sports Events/Facilities Advisory Committee.
Coun. Arif Khan and Coun. Barry Ward put their names forward to represent council in the working group.
Barrie’s Mayor Jeff Lehman says the city received several letters of support from members of the hotel and tourism industry and overall the idea received widespread support from the community.
“It’s somewhat unusual to have a new tax proposed that the industry actually is wholeheartedly in support of. But, clearly, the hotel industry is telling us that this is going to help them grow their business because the funds will be spent growing the tourism industry locally, and they don’t presumably see a negative impact on their businesses,” Lehman said at council June 11.
Barrie will join the list of several cities already imposing the Municipal Accommodation Tax, including Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa and Thunder Bay.
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