The Village of Cumberland is reviewing its stance on regional tourism.
After pulling out of the Comox Valley鈥檚 regional organization and paying a price to do so several years ago, the village is now considering joining again.
The village is being asked to respond to the Comox Valley Regional District鈥檚 review of regional economic development and tourism services.
The main development over the last year or so has been Tourism Vancouver Island (TVI) coming in to oversee the tourism operations, replacing the previous organization, the Comox Valley Economic Development Society (CVEDS).
Cumberland had had issues with CVEDS over its service and decided to leave in 2016, striking out on its own for economic development in general.
In recent years, other partners started to reconsider the relationship with CVEDS, which led to the CVRD board voting to end the contract with CVEDS in early 2021.
RELATED STORY: Comox Valley Regional District board votes to terminate CVEDS contract
RELATED STORY: Tourism centre officially transferred to Comox Valley Regional District
TVI then formally took over the tourism operations, including operations at the Vancouver Island Visitor Centre, during last summer.
鈥淥ne of the first things they did was reach out to our community,鈥� Cumberland economic development officer Kaelin Chambers told council at the July 11 meeting. 鈥淭he connection they鈥檝e made with our business community has been really great.鈥�
During discussion, council members brought up past issues with the regional tourism body, as well as questions around the visitor centre mortgage and the commitment to conservation issues in light of impact from the tourism sector. Another hope the village has is to be able to use hotel tax money, especially from short-term vacation rental housing, to help building more affordable housing for residents in Cumberland.
鈥淭here鈥檚 still a lot of conversation around that,鈥� Coun. Jesse Ketler said.
Still, the consensus among council members was they had been happy with the change of organizations, enough to consider looking into rejoining a regional body.
鈥淭VI鈥檚 doing a great job, and I think we should join the service,鈥� Coun. Vickey Brown said.
At the end of the discussion, council passed motions to authorize entry into the regional tourism agreement, respond to the CVRD鈥檚 request for consent to its bylaw, have staff produce a report on the inclusion of Cumberland as a formal participant in the Comox Valley Tourism Service and invite the regional district to appear as a delegation before council to present on the outcomes of the service review.
mike.chouinard@comoxvalleyrecord.com
Like us on and follow us on .
