VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – An increase in the hotel room tax in Vancouver kicks in today, meaning visitors and “staycationers” will pay a few dollars more when the book a room. The provincial opposition isn’t happy with where the extra revenue will end up.

It’s not a major amount more. The request to increase the tax from two to three percent has been approved by the BC government. The BC NDP says 40 per cent of the money raised will be used to service the $100-million debt taken on by Tourism Vancouver in order to finance the construction of new Vancouver Convention Centre.

Tourism Critic David Eby says the Liberals are charging Tourism Vancouver extra interest on the loan and that money is going to general revenue. “If the province just charged Tourism Vancouver the same interest rate they were paying on the money that they borrowed in the first place, there would be an extra $2-million to promote tourism in Vancouver and we could have done exciting things like the New Year’s Eve festival that was proposed for last New Year’s Eve but we couldn’t do because we didn’t have enough money.”

He says Vancouver is in a very competitive tourism market with Seattle and Portland and every bit of promotion helps. “Our hotel operators are competing with AirBnB operators that don’t pay that tax. So anytime that you’re increasing the expenses related to hotel rooms in Vancouver, you’re making us less competitive.”