At their annual general meeting last week, Tourism Golden had some exciting numbers to share with their members and stakeholders.
“It really was an exceptional year for us,” said Lynn Moffat, Tourism Golden President.
“You deliver outstanding guest experiences for our visitors.”
The tax revenue for the past fiscal year went up by 48 per cent, further illustrating how sustainable the funding model is for the organization. The more people who come to Kicking Horse Country, the more tax is collected through the accommodators, and the higher the budget is for Tourism Golden to market the community.
There was also an increase in total revenues by 44 per cent, and an increase in member co-op marketing revenues (through materials like the Travel Planner) by 60 per cent.
The increase in revenue led to a unique problem for the organization, they ended up with leftover funds.
“It sounds like it would be a good thing, to have money left over at the end of the year,” said Joanne Sweeting, manager of Tourism Golden. “But these funds come to us to market Golden as a destination, and we want to spend it.”
There was an excess of $143,284 at the end of the year.
Tourism Golden doesn’t know exactly how much money is coming in until the cheque arrives, which makes it difficult to budget. However there are worse problems to have, and they have already worked all the extra funds into this year’s budget.
There were a few exciting developments for the organization this year, including the first Golden Mountain Festival celebrating Golden’s Swiss Guides (which will become an annual event), the launch of the website, a new hiking map, and a new bike trail map among others.
The bike trail map was a big one says Sweeting, and Golden will be hosting several important bike races this year including Single Track 6.
In the coming year, they are looking to change the look of the “Golden Brand” to make sure it is fresh, and ahead of the curve. Several municipalities have started copying Golden’s materials, making them less unique.
Tourism Golden’s priorities are to increase awareness of Golden as a great place to visit, increase visitors’ length of stay, and to establish perceptions of Golden that are consistent with the community’s “brand.”
To achieve this, they have spent a great deal of time on public relations (hosting journalists etc.) and have contracted a public relations firm.
These are difficult goals to achieve, especially when members and stakeholders have different opinions about how Golden should be marketed.
That is why Tourism Golden values feedback, and asks tourism industry workers to provide feedback.
