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Tourism Celebrating Tourism — The Free Press
Thursday, June 6, 2019 Page B1
Special Feature
An important part of Fernie’s Economy By Jikke Gyorki Executive Officer, Tourism Fernie Each year we partner with the Fernie Free Press and various local tourism gurus and businesses to produce this Special Tourism Feature. Our objective? To highlight tourism in our community, its importance and the extent it touches us all. It has been part of Fernie’s fabric for almost 100 years, back when local resident JF Spalding photographed many of Fernie’s landscapes and newsworthy happenings while spearheading the Tourist Association of South Eastern B.C. & Southern Alberta and producing the Automobile Road Guide for B.C., AB & SK. Today, tourism brings in over $140 million in visitor spending, most of which is new money coming into Fernie from outside the region. Visitors, whether here for leisure, business, sport, weddings or simply visiting friends or family, spend money on local dining, lodging, shopping, activities, nightlife, attractions and more. These dollars contribute to our community in many ways - businesses grow and thrive, jobs are created, and amenities we all enjoy are expanded and improved. As local residents we are continually intermingling with those from other places. For the diversity of reasons visitors come they are rating Fernie high when asked if they would recommend Fernie to others. The quality experiences local Fernie businesses and organizations provide are key to this, as well as the great events and Rocky Mountain
views, but even more so, and what gives Fernie its unique and competitive angle, is the community feel, great hospitality, rich history and historic downtown. This past year represented a monumental progression to work in collaboration for Fernie’s tourism industry success and sustainability in the long term. The Tourism Master Plan, a community effort to create a guiding document for local tourism, is nearing completion; more can be read about this on the pages to follow. The provincial tourism funding program, the Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI), which provides over $340,000 annually to support local tourism infrastructure and programs, recently received on-going long-term support through inclusion within the provincial budget. The MRDT 2 per cent hotel tax, which brings in over $400,000 annually for Fernie to execute tourism marketing, programs and projects has recently seen further increases since B&B’s, AirBnB and short-term rentals have started collecting. This tax is the primary funding source for Tourism Fernie and is expected to see an increase by 2020 once a current initiative to increase the tax from 2 per cent to 3 per cent is completed. Looking forward presents many opportunities to continue to work together for tourism’s success and management. With a stronger foundation and collaborative framework our industry and community will begin to implement the actions identified as priorities in the Tourism Master Plan. Through this new collaborative effort, we envision not just a more resilient industry but a stronger and more progressive community.