New survey results say Yellowknifers support an Accommodation Levy to pay for local tourism marketing
Almost two thirds (63.6%) of Yellowknifers answering a new online survey support having an Accommodation Levy of between 1% and 3%. If a 3% Levy is needed to fund a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO), more communication with all stakeholders and the public will be needed. Information to address questions raised in the survey is being developed and will be shared on yktourism.ca over the next few weeks.
Looking to the future, 81% of Yellowknifers who completed the online survey also said that “tourism will be very important” in our city’s future. Only 17% said it will be “somewhat important” and 2% said tourism “will not be very important at all.”
The survey confirmed that many people are already aware that tourism brings big dollars into our community. 60% of respondents correctly chose $90.5 million as the total expenditures from tourists in Yellowknife in 2016.
Yellowknifers provided lots of ideas about what can be done to attract more tourists to the city. The number one suggestion (69%) was to have more festivals and special events that would draw tourists. The next two choices were feature “traditional indigenous games and special events” (61%) and “promote big conferences” (58%). Scores of write-in comments provided more ideas.
When it came to how to raise the money to market Yellowknife, 20% of those answering the survey skipped that question. Of the 80% that answered the question, 73% chose an Accommodation Levy of between 1% and 5% as the best way to raise the money. Only 7% wanted to pay for tourism marketing by raising property taxes.
Almost half of Yellowknifers (47.2%) who completed the survey provided extra comments and ideas. Half of those comments were positive or were requests for more information. The other half were negative but with lots of suggestions for improvements. The comments weren’t focused as much on the merits of an Accommodation Levy as they were on things that currently detract from Yellowknife’s appeal to tourists. Every comment is being reviewed and over the next few weeks we will be providing responses on this website and through social media. Stay tuned.
Thanks to all who completed the survey.