I was elected your President in October 2020 by the board of directors and have served for two years all of which has been affected by the pandemic. Thankfully travel restrictions have faded this year and even the ArriveCan app has fallen victim – travel has won, and people are able to resume a more normal life.

Since 2014, I have managed Gallagher Lake Resort, near Oliver in the South Okanagan, owned by Parkbridge Lifestyles. Gallagher Lake Resort has experienced tremendous growth mirrored by other members over the pandemic. People have taken to RVing and camping and my resort has more than tripled the occupied nights including the introduction of snowbird camping. The glamping trend is strong, and I hear from members adding cabins all the time. Here at Gallagher we have added 10 new Camping Cabins bringing the total to 14. Each pay for the investment in 2.5 years.

The BCLCA Team aided by the elected board of directors are engaged with market technology, and operational trends seeking out change opportunities to assist and advise members in their day-to-day operations. This year the board began longer range planning with the development of a three-year strategic plan and to assist members deal with post pandemic change.

Click here for the snapshot for some Classification Units in the tourism and hospitality sector.

Members are asking us to provide information on what charges they should be paying on credit card and POS fees.

Both MasterCard and Visa publish the interchange rates for various card types accepted. The rates vary based on the card presented. Other factors that affect the rates are type of card, i.e. domestic or international, commercial or prepaid cards.

As a merchant you need to speak to your acquirer or card acceptance provider (i.e. Moneris, Global Payments, First Data, etc.) as they will have other fees in their card acceptance agreements.

Acquirer Role: Financial institutions that provide card acceptance services to merchants are typically referred to as “acquirers.” Mastercard and Visa have no involvement in acquirer and merchant pricing policies or agreements. Interchange fees are one component of the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) established by acquirers, which is paid by merchants to acquirers in consideration for card acceptance services.

Here are the published Visa and MasterCard Canada Interchange rates:

For more information:

BCLCA has been approached by Destination BC to help support the development and improvement of accessible tourism products, services, and activities in BC to ensure every person can participate.

As a first step, tourism businesses can now add their accessibility attributes to HelloBC.com so that consumers planning a trip to BC can easily find businesses that are accessible. Destination BC has organized the accessibility attributes into five categories:

See the attached Accessible Attributes Check List for Tourism Businesses – ACCOMMODATION – for information on each. It is estimated that the check list takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.

The goal is to have all campgrounds, RV parks and lodging that are members of BCLCA measure their existing accessibility features through a self-assessment process, and then to add those features to your listing on Hellobc.com. The data will be shared with BCLCA and we will explore adding the Accessibility feature on our website travel-british-columbia.com in 2023.

For example:

There is no cost to participate but you need to complete the Accessible Attributes Check List for Tourism Businesses – ACCOMMODATION and submit the form to [email protected].

Do you want to install Level 3 charging stations (DC fast-chargers) for public use? The next deadline for rebate applications through the CleanBC Go Electric Public Charger Program is December 16th, 2022, 11:59pm.

Learn about rebates from the CleanBC Go Electric Public Charger Program in a webinar on November 9 at noon PST. Applicants are required to join or view a recording of an information-session webinar explaining details of the program.

Register for Webinar - https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gkD0sLhnT0iw6OtxzXy21w