ASK Salt Spring: Answered - Ep. 46 Jamie Sterling

Episode Date: October 26, 2024

Damian Inwood, host of Ask Salt Spring Answered, talks to Jamie Sterling, executive director of the Southern Gulf Islands Tourism Partnership about Gulf Islands tourism initiatives and ways the SGITP is raising money for affordable housing for employees in the tourism and hospitality trade.

Okay, I'm here with Jamie Sterling, who is the Executive Director of the Southern Gulf Islands Tourism Partnership. Welcome, Jamie. Thank you. And we've just been in Ask Salt Spring, where we were talking about a couple of things. Well, tourism, obviously, but also spent quite a little bit of time on affordable housing. So, just to start with, I'll just go through some of the things that we talked about today and you described the tourism partnership as a destination management organization similar to a tourism board and maybe you could just tell me a little bit more about the organization. Yeah, so we represent the Southern Gulf Islands,

so Salt Spring, Pender, Maine, Galliano, and Saterna Islands. Like you said, we're what's now called the Destination Management Organization. So we do marketing and destination development as it relates to the tourism industry for our region. Okay, and you get your funding from the accommodation tax mostly, right? Yes, almost exclusively. Our funding comes from the Municipal Regional District Tax, or MRDT, that all the accommodations in our region charge. It's an extra 2% on the cost of a room, so that means that tourists are actually funding our organization. Right, okay. And so you promote the islands as a destination for people to come and visit. And I think you said you're interested in things like culinary tourism.

We already have the studio tour, I think, here on Salt Spring. I'm not sure what they have on the other islands. But agritourism, I don't know, is there an ale trail possibility here? We have a brewery here on Salt Spring, but I'm not sure if they have any on the other islands. There's a very cool brewery on Main Island, and we are on the BC Ale Trail as an extension of the Victoria area. Okay, right. So that's always good. As a beer drinker myself, I always enjoy a good visit to a brewery. Oh, you should check the one out on Main. It's very cool.

I will, yeah. And you work with the Chambers of Commerce and the Local Community Commission and the CRD. And I think you said that you get about $700,000 a year in revenue from the taxes that people pay to come and visit here. And half of that budget is going to go to affordable housing. I was quite surprised to hear that. I didn't know that.

And perhaps you could just give me the background on that. How did that come about? And how does it relate to tourism? Yeah, because we are publicly funded, the province sets some very specific parameters on how we're able to spend that funding. And several years ago, the province decided that one of the eligible uses of those funds would be for affordable housing. So for me, I think the big relation there is that the workforce that makes the tourism industry possible needs to have affordable housing based on their income.

So in order for the industry to function, our funding can support the workforce staff needs. So we're talking about people like servers in the hospitality industry, chefs. What kind of other people do you see as being helped with that? Yeah. Cleaners, anyone working in hotels. I think those are probably the big ones on our islands, yeah.

Okay. So as I understand it, you have a fund that's kind of growing now that's been put aside in a separate account or whatever for at some point to be spent on affordable housing when you find the right project that fits what your mandate is, I guess. Exactly. Of that portion that we put towards affordable housing, some goes towards the CRD's rural housing program, which is just getting started. Some goes towards the Housing Now program, which is being operated by the Southern Gulf Islands Community Resource Center. And the remainder stays in a reserve fund that we hope to mobilize when the right opportunity comes along. Right. Okay. And, yeah, so that's quite exciting, isn't it, that you could actually be contributing to a housing project somewhere on Salt Spring or on the other islands, presumably, too.

Exactly. Yeah. And our organization was really created with the idea of making sure that the visitor economy gives back to our island communities and makes them better places to live. And so affordable housing is a really big way that we can support the quality of life here. Right. Now, I know there's been some confusion, I think you alluded to, with the different tourism groups that are in existence. And some people have confused your group with another tourist group on Salt Spring. So your website, as I gather, is southerngulfislands.com. That's correct. That's correct. That's right. And who are your members?

Let's tell people about how they could be a member of this group. Yeah. Our members are accommodation providers, tour operators, and what I call tourism-adjac adjacent businesses that aren't necessarily purely focused on tourism, but do have a large base of tourist customers. Okay, so if you run an Airbnb, for example, would you be able to join? Is that something that you would have? And you'd get a listing on your

website or something like that, or a link to your website? Right, exactly. Yeah, as an accommodation provider. Yeah, that's part of our membership tiers. Right. Okay. Okay. Now, I think you said that you don't actually promote tourism in the high season, in the summer months. You only promote tourism from, I think you said October, the equinox to April. And I think you said that it sounded kind of funny, but I don't think it was meant that way, that you're encouraging people to come here and do nothing. Right, yes. No, I think it is meant to be kind of funny. It's a bit counter to how we think about vacations. You don't really go somewhere to do nothing, but I think we're trying to elevate that idea of nothingness, that it depends on if businesses have decided to stay open or not. So we wanted to kind of turn that the truth of islands in the off season into a strength and have people appreciate that about us

instead of become frustrated by it. Right. So to expect a slower pace when they come over in these months as opposed to everything's not going to be going gangbusters. Places may be closed and so on. Exactly, yeah. Right, yeah. And, I mean, the islands, as you said, are a unique place to do nothing. And you said that actually the numbers are improving in the winter months now, is that right? You've seen a bit of a turnaround there? Yeah, exactly. We analyze the visitor

numbers every year. And last year's data suggested that we were making an impact in flattening out the spike that we see in the summer. So we'll look forward to getting back the data from this year as well, but hope to see that positive trend continue. Okay, and Vancouver and Victoria are your biggest markets, you said. But your website does cover the whole world. Do you get people from other countries? Obviously the U.S., but other countries as well? Europe and so on?

Yeah, we don't look into the specific locations too much. But, yeah, being on the internet means we're accessible to anyone around the world. And so even though primarily our website traffic is coming from Canada and then a distant second from the US, it is being seen by people from around the world. And you put your promotional stuff goes on social media mostly, does it? Or a mixture of print and national advertising? How does it break down? A lot on social media, a lot through Google's platforms.

But we do mostly digital advertising, a little bit of print provincially only. We don't market anywhere other than BC, Alberta, and Washington because just the nature of our region, it's more of a drive distance location for visitors. So if we're attracting from farther away, it has less return on investment for that kind of expense. Okay. Now, I think you said you have nine directors on your board coming from the accommodation, arts, and food sectors, which is great. and you like to make sure the money you raise stays in the community how do you do that we hire and support local businesses mainly and

as much as possible we we keep that money flowing back into what already exists in our communities so we work with resident photographers, designers, web developers, local printers from across the Southern Gulf Islands regions. Okay. And you said that I think you're trying to encourage people not to drive. Obviously, certainly in the summer months, we have a terrific problem with traffic. Not so much in the winter months, except for with this road development that we're all going through at the moment. But yeah, how do you do that? How are you

encouraging people to get out of their cars? We create resources about what the options are alternative to cars. Interestingly, though Salt Spring has the bus, the other islands have a bunch of different options. Some volunteer-run community buses. And a lot of the times we also encourage cycling. But the Hop On Hop off bus is an example um tour salt spring is another example um yeah are you finding there's a lot of interest in picking that up as opposed to driving your car uh there i think there is a lot of interest. It does get a lot of interest in how to support emissions-free travel. Right. Okay. Now, obviously, the affordable housing part is big, which may not happen immediately.

What are you looking forward to in the year ahead, would you say? I'm really looking forward to building strong relationships with community organizations and our local government and finding opportunities for collaboration and seeing how we can make a bigger impact on improving quality of life here and how we can support that. Okay, great. Well, thanks for coming in. And you've been listening to me, Damian Inwood, and Jamie Sterling, who is the Executive Director of the Southern Gulf Islands Tourism Partnership. And we are on Ask Salt Spring Answered on Cheer FM, the voice of the Southern Gulf Islands Tourism Partnership. And we are on Ask Salt Spring Answered

on Cheer FM, the voice of the Gulf Islands.