Some new legislation has been brought forward by the provincial government on having more transparency around tourism fees.
Tourism and Sport Minister Andrew Boitchenko says they want to have clear rules regarding the use of destination marketing fees.
“We’re making sure that the fees are transparent, but also remitted where they’ve supposed to be. When they charge destination marketing fees, it’s supposed to be submitted to the destination marketing organizations locally to market that particular region in the area.”
Destination marketing fees are voluntary fees that tourism businesses may charge customers with the intent to support local tourism destination marketing and development.
Boitchenko says while most of those businesses operate in good faith, some have retained those fees for profit.
“It’s only because of lack of the framework. It’s not mandated in Alberta right now where and how you need to spend the fees. With this framework, it’s going to be standard throughout the whole industry and everyone who voluntarily charges the fees will submit them locally to promote local areas and market the local destination.”
Boitchenko says the changes are a key step in growing Alberta’s visitor economy.
You can listen to the full interview below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
