Hotel room tax to jump to three per cent in Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ next year

Staying in a hotel in Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ will be a little more expensive next year.

That's because Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ city council has given the green light to increase the city's hotel room tax to three per cent from the current two per cent.

The hotel room tax, in place in Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ since 2004, generated nearly $1.85 million in the last year, and according to a city staff report, it will raise just under $3 million per year once the increase is fully implemented in 2017-18.

The money is used by Tourism Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ to market the city as a tourist destination and the additional funds will help expand its advertising reach to areas not currently being heavily marketed, but where Tourism Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ says there is great potential — Eastern Canada and and the Western U.S.

Tourism Â鶹¾«Ñ¡'s Nancy Cameron said the area have great potential in large part because of direct  and indirect flights to and from Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ International Airport.

In order to increase hotel room tax, which is administered by the city and passed on to Tourism Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ for use,  a majority of hotel,motel and other accommodation operators must approve the move. Cameron said raising the tax by one per cent has the support of 55.4 per cent of local operators representing more then 80 per cent of the rooms available in the city.

Last year, the provincial government changed the legislation governing hotel room taxes in B.C. to allow municipalities to approve an one per cent increase.

Prior to approval, Mayor Colin Basran asked Cameron if Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ was alone in doing so. She said no.

The Tourism Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ CEO said while Vancouver is the only municipality that has now implemented the increase, several others have approved the move and are awaiting implementation. And others are at the same stage in the process as Â鶹¾«Ñ¡.