LETTER: Tourism Rossland seeks funding support from City
By Deanne Steven
Dear Mayor and Councillors,
Please find below and attached our request for funding for the 2014 year. This year we are requesting that our funding be tied directly to Business License revenue as we feel that this would be a good method of determining our success every year. The more businesses that are licensed in Rossland the stronger the overall economy has become, recognizing that tourism is the major driver for the local economy.
Tourism Rossland is the only tourism marketing organization in the community and we work to ensure that we leverage and participate in all possible opportunities with our partners at Kootenay Rockies Tourism, Destination BC, and the Canadian Tourism Commission.
We believe that Tourism Rossland shows a great return on investment by continuing to receive other grants and work on pay to play opportunities with local partners. The funding that we receive from the City of Rossland is leveraged 3 times, and provides the core funding needed in order to access other grants and create projects that are key to all of our local stakeholders. We have a great track record of successfully leveraging this funding over the past 6 years.
Additionally, we save the City money by applying for and managing the Resort Municipality Initiative which has provided the city with additional infrastructure funding and projects including signage (banners, kiosk, trails and road signs), as well as additional transportation opportunities. Furthermore we worked very hard this year on doubling this funding, and created an incentive program for businesses to participate in. We also complete all of the reporting on behalf of the city for this funding and continue to work on leveraging it.
We also work with other local non-profit organizations to ensure that there is never any overlap or duplication of services. We collaborate with them on specific projects for example:
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Golden City Days- assistance with social media
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Rossland Museum- growing the photobank, assisting in providing information for redevelopment contractors, promoting the facility
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Kootenay Columbia Trails Society- worked with them to create the Trails maps and various map kiosks
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Black Jack- work with them on promotion of events, mapping and grant opportunities
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Red Mountain Racers- work with them on promotion and coordination of their events
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Spirit of Red- hosted the Norwegian journalists during Rossland Winter Carnival
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Rossland Winter Carnival- work on the organizing committee and handle their website
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Rossland Rubberhead- work with their committee and assist with their website
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Rossland Heritage Commission- redesigned and reprinted the Heritage Walking Guide
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City of Rossland, Rossland Chamber of Commerce, Rossland Library- successfully created a new coordinated brand for the community and found a grant to assist in paying for it.
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Continue to maintain www.rosslandevents.com as a central events tool for the entire community.
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Rossland Farmers Market- creation of a promotion video for them.
We have overwhelming support from the local business community who recognize the value in an organization that supports their businesses by continuing to bring people to our community.
This past year has been both our organizations and our partners most successful year, with the highest ever accommodation revenue. Some of our greatest successes this year are highlighted in the attached Annual Report, however our greatest success of 2013 was probably bringing Canada AM to Rossland to shoot a live nationally broadcast 3 hour show.
We look forward to continuing our work with the City of Rossland in the future.
Should there be any comments or questions the both the board and myself would welcome the input.
Regards
Deanne Steven
