Re: “Helps leads second trade mission to China and Japan next week,” Oct. 14.
So Mayor Lisa Helps and city staff are in China encouraging tourism. Perhaps they want to bring more visitors here to stay in our downtown hotels. Wealthy visitors from overseas and the U.S. might be the only ones who can afford the cost of visiting here now that city council has moved to shut down short-term rentals in Victoria.
The rest of us depend on Airbnb or other sharing platforms, which offer travel options for families, young people and pensioners, or people who want to stay longer than a day or two and experience more than the hop-on-hop-off view of our city.
I think Victoria might find a big reduction in the number of visitors who come here with this change in the rules. Closing down short-term rentals in the city is the stated goal of council as a way to resolve Victoria’s housing crisis.
I doubt that this move will result in many more reasonable rental units opening up, since many of the condos offered for short-term rentals are owned by people who use them themselves for part of the time. What it will result in is a reduction in visitors and the benefits they bring to businesses in Victoria.
Maybe city staff and councillors have the funds to stay in fancy hotels when they travel, but most of us do not.
Joanna Pettit
Victoria
