The Alberta, Canada government recently announced that Alberta hotels and lodging providers can delay paying the hotel or occupancy tax, also known as a tourism levy, until August 31. The break applies to amounts that become due on or after March 27, 2020. Hotels are still required to collect the levy from guests and to file returns, but payments are deferred until August 31 and will not be subject to penalties or interest.

I wish this was the only case, but it is happening in more and more locations from coast to coast. Province and states, counties and municipalities, anyone who has a levy on hotels are looking at deferrals.

These are extraordinary times and require extraordinary actions – particularly for the destination organizations across the globe that have been greatly harmed by the current crisis. We have been amazed at how fast traditionally slow-moving legislative bodies across the globe have moved to help our industry.  Let there be no mistake – we are very grateful for this.

However, delaying the payment of hotel or occupancy taxes further cripples the destination organization industry because we primarily rely on hotel tax revenue to fund our efforts. The effect of this delay goes well beyond just the travel sector.

The efforts of the modern destination organization range far beyond just filling hotel rooms, restaurants and attractions. That is only a means to a greater end. The modern destination organization is a community asset responsible for programs promoting a community as an attractive travel destination and enhancing its public image as a dynamic place to live and work. Through destination stewardship and brand importance, they strengthen the community’s economic position and vitality which provides the opportunity for all the people in the destination.

In today’s globalized, networked world, every community must compete with every other for its share of the world’s visibility, attention and respect; tourists, consumers and available talent; businesses and the available capital and investments. Those communities who fail to compete will lose ground. They will be left behind.

In other words, the destination organization is the keeper of the community’s brand and this effort is important to every business, every school, every hospital, every government and every person in a community. Crippling the organization by removing a primary source of funds, without replacing it with others, will negatively affect how a community survives this crisis and harm how its economy will rebound once the crisis has abated.

Please urge your elected officials to consider all the implications that a delay in the hotel tax collection without replacing those revenues will have on the communities within your area.