The recently formed Nelson Kootenay Lake Tourism Society is pushing to introduce a two per cent “Additional Hotel Revenue Tax” (AHRT) in the new year.

The tax would be tacked onto the bill of anybody staying in a hotel with over four beds between Nelson and Kaslo, including Areas D, E and F. These hotels are currently charging patrons the Hotel Tax, a three per cent tax that funded Tourism BC before it was dissolved by the province.

In July 2010, that Hotel Tax will be rolled into the new BC HST. Tom Thomson of the Nelson Chamber of Commerce said with all the changes to taxation and tourism marketing, it’s becoming more important to take local control of destination marketing, which is exactly what the AHRT is designed to do.

Many cities already collect a similar tax, as well as Kootenay cities including Rossland, Fernie and Kimberly.

The society already has the support of the accommodators and affected municipalities and areas behind them to put the tax in place. To introduce a bylaw to introduce the tax, the society needed to have support from at least 51 per cent of accommodators, representing 51 per cent of beds.

In their surveys, they got support from 60 per cent of accommodators, with 59 per cent of beds, which is fairly average for what municipalities enter into the agreement with.

“There’s always some push back from people who worry a new tax will stop people from visiting,” said Thomson. “But all we’re talking about is an additional $2 on every $100 visitors are spending on hotel rooms; that’s not going to stop people from coming.”

The money goes into a marketing budget. Thomson believes the additional marketing revenue will allow the area to attract more tourists throughout the year and ultimately benefit the hotels and the business community at large.

“We expect accommodators that don’t support the tax now will be in favour of it by the time the bylaw comes up for renewal five years down the road.”

The proposal is currently sitting with the Regional District of Central Kootenay. They had their first opportunity to support the bylaw to implement that tax at their Sept. 24 meeting. However the motion was tabled to their next meeting, in a month’s time, because directors were unsure about how the tax would be administered.

Thomson plans to meet with the affected directors.

If the RDCK goes on to approve the bylaw, it will then go to the province for final approval.

Thomson is hoping to see the tax in place by the spring of 2010.