Minister Bill Dooks bringing carrots and a stick to the TIANS AGM at Liscombe Lodge, Eastern Shore

The Minister for Tourism, Bill Dooks, arrived at the TIANS AGM breakfast meeting at Liscombe Lodge, (May 24th 2008), with something of a “carrot and stick” approach.

Listing several substantive contibutions since taking office as Minister of Tourism, including more financial support for RTIA’s, an amendment to the Seasonal Tourist Business Tax Incentive, and a pledge to partner with industry including TIANS, and the RTIA’s, his speech was consistently upbeat with a clear message that industry must lead, and government over -regulation must stop.

The Minister has come out to bat for the tourism industry with vigour, determination and a vision for the industry in Nova Scotia. But at the end of his speech the carrots and the bat were exchanged for the stick, in his warning to industry that the repeal of the Tourist Accomodation Act, (TAA) must go through.

It appears that opposition to the repeal of the act by some sectors of the industry is sufficient to cause concern. Getting rid of the TAA is all part of the new government strategy to stop the tail wagging the dog. It is a strategy that has already been adopted in six provinces.

Now, the way I see it, over-regulation stifles industry. The complete repeal of the act though leaves me wondering what impact deregulation will have on my business. I suspect not a great deal because non-licensed B&Bs have been operating in the market place for years and I have already had to account for this in my marketing. Will there now be a flood of new unlicensed B&Bs into the marketplace? Probably- and this may be the reason that NSBBA’s president John Meehan opposes the deregulation.

If the tourism sector was more vibrant I suspect that the issue of the repeal of the TAA would not be so contentious. If in fact government were indeed able to deliver on the promise made by Bill Dooks just days after his appointment at AESTA’s AGM on October 30th 2007 at Liscombe, “It is up to government to bring customers to your doorstep,” I am certain that there would be far less opposition to the repeal.

In talking to B&B operators, I have discovered that many feel as I do- they feel that they have been left to market their businesses and indeed their regions and the province themselves. There is a sense of isolation, abandonment and a perception of disregard for what the B&B industry brings to the tourism industry.

I raised the issue of advertising  costs last year in October in Antigonish at the “Let’s Talk Tourism” initiative when the new NS branding was floated across the province. The cost of advertising for small operators was prohibitive I said. This year I planned to drastically cut back on advertising and to maintain only my own online presence.

I have in fact deviated somewhat from that original plan and gone out on a limb to attend every possible course and meeting made available by TIANS, and my RTIA. I have networked more, participated in a few cluster marketing initiatives and generally tried to be engaged as much as possible in the industry and take advantage of everything that is currently on offer. TIANS new masterclass series of workshops included Todd Lucier’s worshop on e-marketing, and was an absolutely amazing experience. The advertising costs for packages on www.novascotia.com have been reduced and the listings for B&Bs dramatically enhanced.

“So, how is all this working for me?” Well, so far so good. I certainly have more ideas than time to implement those ideas.

I have also been pleased to see that almost all the issues that I had concerns about are part of TIANS stated objectives and that Minister Bill Dooks is seeking to elevate the awareness that government investment in the tourism industry through infrastructure, highways and advertising is essential to Nova Scotia’s economy  which contributes 1.3 Billion dollars to the provincial coffers.

So with so much that is positive going on, why do I feel somewhat uneasy about the election of new officers to the TIANS board and the failure of John Meehan, president of the NSBBA, to be re-elected? Certainly John’s supporters felt that the listing of his bio on the back sheet of the “TIANS Proposed Slate of Nominations for 2008/9 TIANS Board of Directors,” was not making it a level playing field for all candidates- who were essentially represented as those on the TIANS slate and “additional nominees”, John of course being “additional”.

With only 12 members on the board, it isn’t just a question of “well- did the best man win?” but also of industry representation. So I am posing the question, “Did John lose his position on the TIANS board because he was opposed to the repeal of the Tourist Accommodation Act?” If the answer to this is “yes”, then the NSBBA has just been steam-rollered and my concern is that my voice through NSBBA might possibly just have been silenced- which is more than a little disconcerting.