“Build it and they will come,” goes the saying.
Maybe the much-needed update for 2018 is “Instagram and they will come.”
Because whether we build tourism and trail infrastructure or not, the people are still coming.
Our local cheerleaders like Tourism Squamish and Destination BC do an amazing job of attracting visitors, along with the economic benefits we all enjoy. But increasingly we’re hearing from elected officials in the Sea to Sky that not enough revenue is returning to the system.
The cost of maintaining mountain bike trails was a sticking point during a recent presentation to council by leaders at SORCA – who suggested that businesses that benefit from biking tourists should contribute to the infrastructure costs that bring them here.
On Jan. 9 council was asked to consider a new tax on hotel rooms that will help fund tourism marketing. The entirety of the proceeds from the tax, as mandated by the province, will go towards tourism marketing.
Coun. Susan Chapelle and Mayor Patricia Heintzman both pointed out that tourism dollars for advertising need to keep pace with tourism dollars for infrastructure.
“The province is spending a ton of money promoting tourism, but not following it through with enough money on the infrastructure side. They need to back it up with the infrastructure dollars to support the visitors that they’re promoting through these types of taxes,” said Heintzman.
The consequences of not having toilets, garbage cans or trail maintenance can mean disaster for our beautiful places.
In the long-term it’ll also mean disappointing visitors with crowding, confusion and possible injury.
In a recent interview for an article on the growth of the Sea to Sky, Pemberton Mayor Mike Richman told me they’re having the same conversation up the highway.
Joffre Lakes being the obvious example – but he can name plenty of backcountry recreation sites that are feeling the negative effects of visitors who don’t understand bear or wildfire safety. “We’ll continue taking the conversation to the province and saying listen, you put a good budget together over the years to market our province. It’s worked, they’re here, and we need a similar budget to manage it. We just don’t have the resources as a small community,” said Richman.
The unfortunate truth is that we think of a visit into nature as free, but there are hidden costs if we want to accommodate a large number of visitors.
Who will pay the bill? It’s not a question we can ignore for long, or we won’t have any more pretty places to advertise.
