3426 replies to this topic

[tjv]

^true, we haven't had a strong mayor (or council) in over 30 years.  I personally blame it on everyone with some authority who works at City Hall.

 

Mike, truthfully since I moved out to the peninsula I really don't have much of a reason to go downtown other than the occasional business meeting.  Everything I need is available in the suburbs with loads of free parking and little traffic.  I can even go for a nice walk, enjoy the scenery without people bugging me for spare change or as you have witnessed drug deals or knife wielding incidents (sorry, don't remember the later)

[DavidL]

Tourism Victoria's budget has grown from $4,500,000 in 2014 to $8,500,000 in 2018.  Occupancy rates have gone from roughly 66% to 74%.  Seems like a good investment.   Except that the Canadian Tourism Council tells us that for every 10% in Canadian dollar devaluation against the US dollar, we get about a 4% increase in occupancy rates.  Since 2014 the dollar is down about 20%, so we would expect an 8% rise in occupancy rates.  Which is what we've experienced.

 

So the question is for the $8.5 million are we getting good value from Tourism Victoria, or is Tourism Victoria just the rooster who thinks the sun rises because they crow?

 

There is a reason I ask.  The province will now allow cities to use some of their hotel tax for affordable housing initiatives if they want to, but Mayor Helps has said she won't consider it. Tourism Victoria will get more than $5,000,000 from that tax in 2018, a $2,000,000 increase over 2016.  Turning down 2 million free bucks for affordable housing in the middle of a housing crisis seems at odds with CoV council's narrative.  This doesn't gut Tourism Victoria, but would leave them with a $6.5 million budget, still 44% more than they had in 2014.

[VicHockeyFan]

Helps does not make that decision though, if another councillor presents a motion for a vote.

[DavidL]

That is true, but she did say no publicly 2 days after the budget announcement.  "Hotel tax won't be used for affordable housing, Victoria mayor says" was the TC headline for the story Feb 22.

[rjag]

Didn't the Hotel association provide funds for the David Foster walkway? I seem to remember this to be the case. Isnt it funny that Tourism Victoria is the mouthpiece for the hotel association and receives significant funding from the Hotel tax? Doesn't that strike anyone as strange that its not a conflict of interest? I agree that our weak $ has done more for the tourism economy than anything. Something doesn't add up with the cosy way of Tourism Vic with the hotel association, DVBA and the City. I wonder how much money was lost by them chasing Vickers out of town...who was doing more for the city for no salary than anyone else 

[VicHockeyFan]

That is true, but she did say no publicly 2 days after the budget announcement.  "Hotel tax won't be used for affordable housing, Victoria mayor says" was the TC headline for the story Feb 22.

 

http://www.timescolo...says-1.23182974

[VicHockeyFan]

Didn't the Hotel association provide funds for the David Foster walkway? I seem to remember this to be the case. Isnt it funny that Tourism Victoria is the mouthpiece for the hotel association and receives significant funding from the Hotel tax? 

 

YES.  The funding model seems odd or antiquated.  There are lots of day-trippers into town (Clipper, cruise ships, up-Island stays, Air BnB for now) that do not at all fund TV, except through voluntary membership, if they so choose.  Most businesses choose not to be members.

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 10 March 2018 - 11:25 AM.

[DavidL]

Tourism victoria derives about a million bucks of its funding from memberships. It also generates more than a million from the morally questionable "voluntary" 1% Destjnation marketing fee. It's voluntary in the sense that if you notice it on the bill and ask what the hell that is, they'll take it off if you don't want to pay it. But you have to see it and ask. The bulk of funding is MRDT. They make a little on booking commissions on their website where they book hotels and activities.
The walkway funding of 1 million over 11 years. One million total to be clear, came after the city agreed to raise the MRDT rate from 2% to 3%, which is where the 2 million in "extra" funding comes from.

[VicHockeyFan]

It’s hard to quantify what success they have though.

I guess they might ask at exit surveys if the person can’t here due to a Tourism Victoria initiative or ad, but that’s still problematic.

[DavidL]

They claim a 168:1 ROI with an industry average of 20:1 so methinks they're claiming a bit more credit than credit is due.  Let's face it, they're not in a position where they're trying sell sand to people stuck in a desert. Convincing folks who are in 120 heat to come here from the States in summer and to folks who are buried in snow at 20 below in the winter isn't exactly a daunting sales task.

[DavidL]

[Nparker]

A major boon for all the Lekwungen-only speaking tourists who have previously avoided coming to Victoria.

Downtown is getting some new signage just in time for the summer tourist season...Each new sign will incorporate Lekwungen place names including:

Inner Harbour – xʷsey̓’əm (two signs)
Chinatown – čeymən tawen
Douglas Street – xʷənitəm siʔem saɫ
Old Town – kə’siŋ’aləs
City Hall – siʔem tawen’ewtxw
James Bay – sxʷeŋxʷəŋ təŋəxʷ
Ogden Point – čən’it taŋ’exw (two signs)
Fisherman’s Wharf – sq̓e̓ʔqeq̓ wa’əp
Belleville Terminal – xʷey’qʷəlʔəɬ

https://www.vicnews....tourists-the-way/

Will pronunciation guides be provided for the Lekwungen words?

[Freedom57]

Indeed!  How many people speak/read Lekwungen?  You'd think French would be more appropriate since it's an official language of Canada.

[Nparker]

...You'd think French would be more appropriate since it's an official language of Canada.

That will have to wait until the CoV decides it needs to reconcile with Francophones.

[kenmuir]

@DVBA has a photo of the Chinatown sign on their twitter feed.  Is Rock Bay really somewhere that tourists should be directed to?

[Rob Randall]

^Yes. It's a real bother arriving in a city and wandering around randomly trying to find the good hookers.

[Nparker]

...It's a real bother arriving in a city and wandering around randomly trying to find the good hookers.

Surely, there has to be an app for that. Hkr??

[David Bratzer]

Here is some information on the status of Lekwungen as a spoken language. First, linguists do not consider it a language. Rather, it is one of five dialects of a common language in this region.

 

As of 2008 there were zero fluent speakers of the Lekwungen dialect. Even back in 1960's there were only a few fluent speakers of the language:

 

In April 1968, Marjorie Mitchell handed in her master’s thesis for her degree in linguistics at UVic: a dictionary of Lkwungen, a dialect of Straits Salish. She mainly worked with and recorded Sophie Misheal, one of the few remaining fluent speakers at that time. Then she went and typed out nearly 150 pages on a typewriter while having to put in accents and stresses by hand. It is an incredible piece of work and immensely valued by her community.

 

However, it is only one step in the efforts of her ancestors to revive the language and offer active language programs. In all those years, not many people worked with Lkwungen so it still isn’t fully understood, which makes it hard to develop educational material, for example.

 

As an aside, the new signs are confusing. The first sign reads 150 meters to The Empress Hotel. The picture shows it is across the street. 

[VicHockeyFan]

As an aside, the new signs are confusing. The first sign reads 150 meters to The Empress Hotel. The picture shows it is across the street. 

 

Ya, that's just odd.

 

And this one pointing a strange way and distance to the arena is also off.  Or just confusing.  

 

 

 

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 21 March 2018 - 09:41 PM.

[David Bratzer]

Ya, that's just odd.

 

And this one pointing a strange way and distance to the arena is also off.  Or just confusing.  

 

 

Yeah they focused too much on the start of the official neighbourhood boundary for Rock Bay and James Bay. But somehow they didn't apply that logic to boundaries of commercial properties such as the Save On Foods Arena and The Empress. One can only imagine how much $$$$ has been spent on these signs. :-(

Edited by David Bratzer, 21 March 2018 - 10:33 PM.