Prince Edward County council took one step towards a big shake-up in tourism management Tuesday.
At its meeting council officially approved a recommendation that will see county staff take the first steps towards creating a Destination Marketing and Management Organization.
The DMO will act as not only a support for the tourism sector in Prince Edward County but also as a manager in preventing over-tourism and will guide towards a more sustainable model.
This comes following two summers during which the county was overwhelmed with tourists and many issues with traffic congestion, littering and overcrowding were felt.
This will also fulfill the obligations the county has under the legislation governing the collection of the Municipal Accommodation Tax that says “an entity, or Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) independent from the municipality must receive half the funds collected and use these funds for ‘tourism promotion.”
The staff recommendations that were approved also direct staff to conduct public consultation on the creation of the DMO and to bring forward the results at the February 8 meeting of council.
Richard Barrett, chair of StayPEC which is a marketing entity, urged council to defer a decision on the creation of a municipally owned DMO.
He said that from the beginning they wanted to be part of the process but that council was not interested and that they were only handed the Memorandum of Understanding from the municipality a few weeks ago.
“The words of the draft MOU seem to be implying that the municipality wanted to see StayPEC gone within the year. Our lawyers tell us that we’re entitled to a minimum of $104,000 per year as long as the MAT is in effect. Furthermore, as per the legislation, as our membership grows, our portion of the MAT grows and right now we’ve grown to the point that we represent 1,200 beds in this municipality.”
He urged that the county work with them on a plan instead of moving forward on the municipally owned DMO and said that if not, there would be litigation.
Barrett also argued that there hadn’t been proper consultation with StayPEC and other stakeholders and that the county was moving forward on this too quickly.
Director of Community Services, Programs and Initiatives Todd Davis said that they had been working with StayPEC on this for quite some time.
“I mean, certainly, we didn’t start meeting with StayPEC in February 2021, or whatever, we started two-and-a-half years ago, these conversations with StayPEC. Right after they created their corporation they came forward to the municipality and suggested they had done so. We had had conversations with this organization leading up to bringing forward the Municipal Accommodation Tax, and having some discussions. I was surprised when we brought the Municipal Accommodation Tax before you just prior to the pandemic coming forward, because what was most surprising for me, and certainly as a new director at the time I was very junior and didn’t really appreciate how sometimes these things transpire, but I thought we had been working in partnership with StayPEC only to find out that they stood opposed to a Municipal Accommodation Tax.”
In discussion many councillors expressed support for a municipally owned DMO as the way forward for tourism in the county.
After further discussion, council voted on and approved the staff recommendations with the exception of clause five which concerned the MOU with StayPEC.
Councillors John Hirsch, Phil St-Jean and Bill Roberts were nominated and named as “interim directors of Visit The County” for the purpose of application for a certificate of incorporation from the province.
To read the full staff report, click here.
