Mayor Borrowman's Statement on Canmore Business & Torusim Shutdown

The abrupt shutdown of Canmore Business and Tourism this past Friday came as a surprise to many.  You can read more about it here and listen to my discussion with Tanya Foubert about it here.

Mayor John Borrowman has released a statement about how the Town of Canmore plans to respond:

On July 15th the Board of Canmore Business and Tourism (CBT) announced that the organization will be ceasing operations due to a lack of sustainable funding. The primary source of funding has always been the Canmore Destination Marketing Fund (DMF). The fund was created several years ago by a group of hotels as a voluntary contribution, collected through a 3% levy on hotel room stays. While the involvement within the industry was never 100%, over the past 12 months membership in the DMF has declined to a point where the organization has decided not to continue. This leaves CBT without their primary source of funding. While business registry fees, collected through the Town of Canmore (ToC) are contributing approximately $400,000 to fund operations in CBT through an economic development contract, the primary funding source of more than $1M has come from the voluntary DMF fees. Without these fees the organization is no longer viable.

Over the years, Council has worked with the CBT board to try to create a sustainable funding model for destination marketing. Several options have been attempted, all through proposed increases to the business registry fees, but most of the proposals were not well supported by the business community. A revision to the business registry fee structure was approved in 2015, although with a limited increase seen as a result of only qualified support from the general business community.

While we are very disappointed by this news that CBT is closing down operations, the important and successful work that has been done in the past by CBT will not stop. The Town of Canmore is currently working with CBT to create a transition plan to ensure the continuation of some services for the remainder of 2016. We will be working with the business community in the near future to garner input and determine the best model for destination marketing, and how best to deliver economic development planning other than destination marketing. We will work with our partners at Travel Alberta to ensure the Visitor Information Centre on the Trans-Canada highway continues to deliver the same level of top rated service to the travelling public that it has in the past. We will take steps to ensure continuity of the downtown visitor information centre, with a focus on providing visitors to Canmore a warm welcome and helpful information about our community. The Mountain Market will run until the end of the 2016 season as scheduled, and we will work with our partners to see that this vibrant downtown tradition continues. The CBT board is working on a plan now to have Canmore Uncorked continue, as this was one of the most successful campaigns developed by the creative and dedicated staff at CBT.

On behalf of the Town of Canmore I would like to thank the CBT board and staff for their years of excellent work and unparalleled contributions to the tourism industry, and in helping to grow a vibrant economy. Great strides have been made over the last several years, with CBT now recognized as a leader in destination marketing in the Canadian Rockies, and we will continue to build on that success. Thank you all for your great ideas, hard work, and tireless dedication to our community.