Attracting more visitors

County adopts destination marketing and management organization

Tourism in Prince Edward County and how the municipality plans to manage it going forward formed a large part of last Tuesday’s council meeting, which along with a staff report included a consultant’s presentation, a deputation from StayPEC, and an audience comment. What resulted was a favourable vote from Council on the staff report to establish a Municipal Services Corporation (to be known as Visit the County) to function as a destination marketing organization (DMO) for the purpose of promoting tourism in Prince Edward County. The creation of a DMO will include managing the 50 per cent tourism portion (made up of a four per cent tax paid by visitors on overnight stays) of the Municipal Accommodations Tax (MAT) funds. Three councillors, namely John Hirsch, Phil St-Jean and Bill Roberts, were appointed as interim directors until a full board of directors is appointed in April 2022. Also approved was the request for up to $50,000 from the municipal portion of the 2021 MAT funds collected to support the creation of the new DMO.

Greg Klassen with Vancouver-basedTwenty31 Consulting presented an action plan on how the County will transition from how the municipality manages its tourism currently to an arm’s-length style municipal services corporation destination marketing and management organization. Klassen said tourism players within the community would have a say where accommodation associations and the tourism industry would play a significant role, as well as cultural institutions, provincial parks, resident associations and municipal staff. He noted tourism growth has many great outcomes with more revenue, more visitors, more people staying in hotels and eating at restaurants, but he also acknowledged “some very significant negative externalities because many of those visitors are also over-burdening places that they are visiting.” He said they were not only leaving garbage behind, but causing huge amounts of congestion, parking challenges, environmental impact, and to some extent, degradation of the community itself. Klassen noted that management organizations have been one of the responses used to tackle these types of significant challenges, but they also look at supporting and managing the upside of tourism because of the economic return it provides.

While a destination marketing and management organization focuses on marketing, Klassen said to a great extent it also focuses on managing the external challenges that come with tourism. “Not just managing crowds, but how do we manage the tourism opportunity, meaning how do we disperse visitors so they don’t necessarily just come in July and August during the very height of a busy season,” said Klassen. “How do we use tools in our destination management toolbox to disperse those visitors to come in November and February and March; how do we encourage product and destination development in order to attract more visitors during the off-seasons.” Klassen suggested fewer travellers be accepted, but “perhaps accept more travellers with more money to spend, so that they leave more than just their garbage behind, they leave dollars so that the rents from those visitors can be significant enough so that we can continue to help manage and grow tourism in the region, but in a more responsible and calculated way.” He noted there are a lot of natural and cultural assets in the County. “A bucolic beautiful outdoors, the farmland and agriculture, also the vineyards, the provincial park at Sandbanks and the quaintness of your towns really are a public good.” He acknowledged the external challenges facing the County with tourism having affected residents’ quality of life. “The point was to suggest management of those challenges.”

A deputation by Richard Barrett, StayPEC chair, requested any decision around the formation of a new destination marketing and management organization be deferred until early 2022, so the tourism sector could be consulted on whether they prefer a municipal-led or industry-led DMO in Prince Edward County. He further requested staff re-open discussions with the StayPEC board to develop a workable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enable them to play a vital role in shaping the future of tourism in the County. Formed in 2018, StayPEC represents 1,200 beds in Prince Edward County and is the “only pre-existing marketing entity that per MAT legislation is entitled to a portion of the MAT revenues”. Barrett said, “before the MAT, we were self-funding ourselves by charging our guests a voluntary two per cent destination marketing fee”. He said StayPEC wanted to begin having the conversation about the best model for what the future DMO would look like. “We indicted in writing to the municipality that we wanted to play a leading role in the formation and governance of an industry-owned DMO for the County.”

Barrett said StayPEC finally received a draft MOU from the municipality’s lawyers nine months (on November 29) after it was first indicated the document was being drafted, a document Barrett confirmed would not be signed by StayPEC in its current form. “Unfortunately, the municipality was not interested in having that discussion and was not interested in weighing the pros and cons of an industry-owned versus a municipally-owned DMO,” he said. “That was not what we were hoping for; instead of a multiyear collaborative agreement enabling us to work as a team with the municipality to promote tourism, the draft MOU provided for a onetime payment of $100,000 providing that we sign-off on any eligibility for future MAT funding. The wording of the draft MOU seemed to imply the municipality wanted to see StayPEC gone within the year.“ Barrett pointed out that per the legislation, as StayPECs membership grows, so does their portion of the MAT. “That is a lot of MAT dollars flowing through our members’ bank accounts heading to the municipality.” Barrett emphasised the goals of StayPEC and the municipality were similar because both wanted to grow tourism and strengthen the local economy. “Wouldn’t it be much better for everyone if we all set aside our differences and planned to work together to come up with an amicable working relationship that would benefit everyone?“ he asked. Todd Davis, Director of Community Services, Programs and Initiatives, said he was surprised. “I thought we had been working in partnership with StayPEC only to find out they stood opposed to a MAT tax.”

Lynn Sullivan, Rosehall Run Vineyards co-founder said she was surprised to learn that staff had implemented this step without consulting the industry. She said an annual budget of approximately $400,000 specifically designated by the provincial government as a means to support destination marketing programs and destination development initiatives would ensure the industry has the resources necessary to execute a thoughtful and effective sustainable tourism. “The fact that the municipality would have final say over the board of directors and would set out the parameters of a proposed non-profit shows a deep level of disrespect for our industry and our ability to professionally handle the task.”

“Our next step is extensive consultation with industry and the establishment of some draft bylaws to bring this into effect,” said Marcia Wallace, CAO. “I am hopeful that StayPEC, when they see there is a substantive place for accommodators on a future board, would see this as a benefit. Alternatively, they could continue to litigate. If we cannot find agreement with StayPEC, we will be in a legal battle, given their legal letter to the County.”

The December 14 council meeting can be viewed on the County’s YouTube channel. All relating documentation is available on the County’s website.