With the help of our members, the AHLA’s advocacy efforts have resulted in a further extension of the Tourism Levy abatement. However, eligibility for the abatement will now require a 40% revenue reduction from 2019. Eligible hotels can retain an extra 4% of room revenue for amounts collected from October 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.

Dave Kaiser, AHLA President and CEO, spoke with the Edmonton Journal about the announcement:

“We had a decent summer and then when the fourth wave hit, things sort of fell back again,” said Kaiser, adding that those that need the levy abatement support most are downtown hotels that rely on group events, conventions and corporate travel.

“We do have a lot of hotels who are really struggling,” he said, noting the recently announced federal Tourism and Hospitality Support program will also help, but it has a similar 40 per cent revenue-drop threshold that could leave some operators behind.

For Alberta’s abatement, hosts that didn’t have to collect the tourism levy in a corresponding month or quarter in 2019, or that weren’t operating in 2019, won’t be eligible. However, Kaiser noted that in 2019, the industry wasn’t “particularly healthy” before the pandemic.

“I know we’ll have hotels who may be 20 per cent or 25 per cent below that threshold, who will still be losing money,” he said.

Read the full article here.

Click here to find out more about the eligibility requirements and how to apply.