What is a Destination Marketing Fee (DMF)?
A Destination Marketing Fee, or DMF, is a fee collected by businesses from visitors which fund the Destination Marketing Organization, Tourism Jasper. The funds collected are stewarded by Tourism Jasper and are used to market Jasper globally.
The fee is not a tax, and participating businesses do so voluntarily.
Collection of a Destination Marketing Fee is not new. Over 80% of Municipalities in the United States alone collect a DMF. DMFs are a standard industry practice; other tourism organizations, including Edmonton and Calgary, collect DMFs. Banff instituted a Tourism Improvement Fee (similar to a DMF) in 2005.
Jasper's DMF is 3%. On a $200 hotel room, this equates to $6.00; on a breakfast bill of $15.00, it is .45 cents.
Businesses voluntarily join the Jasper Destination Marketing Corporation (JDMC), become shareholders, and collect the DMF. It is at the discretion of each company to determine if they will remove the 3% charge if challenged by the customer.
Tourism Jasper has been innovative in recognizing that additional sectors benefit from this collective and collaborative marketing approach. The DMF allows these businesses in the attractions, restaurant, and activity sectors to become actively engaged in supporting the growth of tourism promotion, events, and visitation, which benefits the entire Jasper community.
Through the collection of the DMF, Jasper has become more competitive in the global travel industry. Through our strategic marketing programs, Tourism Jasper is now actively marketing Jasper to consumers in over 12 countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany & the Netherlands, and Australia.
Sustainability in our community requires us to increase and balance visitation throughout the year. Tourism Jasper is committed to driving year-round visitation and has successfully marketed and shrunk our shoulder seasons by adding events & festivals, including the Dark Sky Festival (October), the Canadian Rockies Half Marathon (April) as well as the Jasper Pride Festival (April).
How Does the DMF Add Value?
Tourism Jasper uses DMF funds in the following ways:
Generates Demand – The DMF enables Tourism Jasper to generate visitor demand for Jasper by investing in marketing and sales efforts, including leisure travel marketing, travel trade promotions, meetings & conventions sales, and event production.
Destination Stewardship - Tourism Jasper also invests DMF dollars into community lead initiatives that address workforce, environmental, and social sustainability that enrich the lives of residents and visitors.
Values-Based Marketing – A values-based visitor is one who shares a community’s local values and aims to leave a destination better than when they arrived. Tourism Jasper is focused on the attraction of these visitors to ensure a high quality of experience and integrity of Jasper and Jasper National Park.
Investing in Jasper’s Shared Success
For many years, Tourism Jasper has focused on generating demand and getting visitors to Jasper. While that will never change, the pandemic taught us that we must invest in and address issues within our community to ensure both the supply and demand sides of the travel equation are addressed, if Jasper wants to become a sustainable, regenerative, and competitive global destination.
Tourism Jasper recently completed the Jasper Destination Stewardship Plan. This comprehensive ten-year strategy is built to optimize the visitor economy and steward the collective future of Jasper and Jasper National Park.
At its heart, this plan outlines initiatives that both protect the authenticity of Jasper and future-proof its visitor economy, which is the engine of Jasper's economic activity. The intended outcome is shared success for all—businesses, residents, and visitors—such that Jasper can be vibrant, resilient, regenerative, and authentically itself in the coming decades.
Learn More
To learn more about the work that Tourism Jasper does or become a shareholder, please fill out this form.
