Meeting News - June 16, 2008 - (Page 57) Cover Story Hotel room taxes continued from cover Authority projects the agency will collect $219 million in room taxes this fiscal year, a 3.5-percent decrease from an earlier estimate of $227 million. The $8-million drop in expected tax revenues was attributed to a downturn in visitation and gaming figures, and convention attendance was down 7 percent in March, following double-digit declines in January and February. The CVA gets 80 percent of its funding from room taxes. Rising hotel taxes aren’t isolated to Las Vegas. U.S. hotels raised $1.6 billion in taxes and surcharges in 2007 (compared with $550 million in 2003), and that figure is expected to rise to $1.75 billion for 2008, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Granted, room taxes are a small part of the range of surcharges hotels and resorts levy on guests, but they are non-negotiable and unavoidable. New York levies a 5-percent hotel room tax on visitors, in addition to an 8.75-percent sales tax. In Baltimore, increasing the hotel tax in Anne Arundel County from 7 percent to a proposed 10 percent would have generated an estimated $6.3 million. The proposal was shot down after local and state tourism officials warned that the measure would drive away visitors. community. For example, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Visit Winston-Salem, a regional CVB in North Carolina, is beset with questions as to what its current revenue of 6-percent hotel-occupancy tax is expected to fund—meetings or community grants. The county commissioner, Ted Kaplan, is also exploring whether to repeal the tax altogether. In Fort Lauderdale, the convention center is being prevented from spending tax money on a convention center hotel. Thus, as the economy slumps, it remains to be seen who will be short-changed—those who raised the hotel taxes to reinvest in their meetings infrastructure, or those who put vital projects on hold. r AD INDEX Advertiser Page Advertiser Page Atlantis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-13 www.atlantis.com Bermuda Department of Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 www.bermudatourism.com Boston Convention Marketing Center . . . . . . . . . . .17 www.AdvantageBOSTON.com Boston Convention Marketing Center . . . . . . . . . . .43 www.AdvantageBOSTON.com/challenge Chateau on the Lake . . . . . . . .19 www.chateauonthelake.com Collier County CVB .6A (insert), 53 www.mn.paradisecoast.com Colonial Williamsburg . . . . . . .21 www.ColonialWilliamsburgMeetings.com Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau . . . . . . . . . . .2-3 www.visitdetroit.com Doral Arrowwood . . . . . . . . . . .46 www.DoralArrowwood.com Greater Miami CVB . . . . . . . . .15 www.MiamiMeetings.com Greenbrier, The . . . . . . . . . . . .60 www.greenbrier.com Jacksonville & the Beaches CVB 51 www.visitjacksonville.com Jet Blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 www.jetblue.com/meetings Long Beach CVB . . . . . . . . . . . .9 www.visitlongbeach.com Manzanillo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 www.gomanzanillo.com Monona Terrace . . . . . . . . . . . .5 www.mononaterrace.com New York Marriott Downtown . . . . . . . . .45 www.nymarriottdowntown.com PRA Destination Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 www.pra.com Rosen Centre Hotel . . . . . . . . .37 www.RosenCentre.com Rosen Shingle Creek . . . . . . . .39 www.RosenShingleCreek.com San Antonio CVB . . . . . . . . . . .25 www.visitsanantonio.com St. Louis CVB . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 www.explorestlouis.com Tourism Ireland . . . . .22A (insert) www.irelandinspiresus.com Universal Orlando . . . . . . . . . .55 www.uomeetingsandevents.com The Index to Advertisers is published for the convenience of our readers. Every effort is made to list advertisers’ names, web addresses and page numbers correctly. The publisher is not liable for errors or omissions. U.S. hotels raised $1.6 billion in taxes in 2007, and that figure is expected to rise in 2008. Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers MaryAnne Bobrow, president of the Sacramento/ Sierra Nevada chapter of Meetings Professionals International, and head of association management services company Bobrow & Associates, compared rising hotel taxes to rising airline fuel surcharges and fees. “Hotels have had a double-whammy to their revenue because of the demise of some airlines with whom they had contracts to house their crews overnight and more farmers switching their crops to corn for fuel use, thus escalating food prices,” Bobrow said. Combined with a decline in leisure travel business, destinations like Las Vegas are beginning to feel the strain, so increased taxes “are not out of the realm of possibility” along with increased food and beverage charges. “That will inevitably lead to the question, ‘Will the attendees come?’ Quite the vicious circle! This will be both an interesting and challenging year for all of us,” Bobrow said. But just as high hotel charges can adversely affect meetings, so too can lack of revenue and understanding of what meetings and tourism do for a www.meetingnews.com June 16, 2008 MeetingNews 57 http://www.visitlongbeach.com http://www.atlantis.com http://www.gomanzanillo.com http://www.bermudatourism.com http://www.mononaterrace.com http://www.AdvantageBOSTON.com http://www.nymarriottdowntown.com http://www.AdvantageBOSTON.com/challenge http://www.pra.com http://www.chateauonthelake.com http://www.RosenCentre.com http://www.mn.paradisecoast.com http://www.RosenShingleCreek.com http://www.ColonialWilliamsburgMeetings.com http://www.visitsanantonio.com http://www.visitdetroit.com http://www.explorestlouis.com http://www.DoralArrowwood.com http://www.irelandinspiresus.com http://www.MiamiMeetings.com http://www.uomeetingsandevents.com http://www.greenbrier.com http://www.visitjacksonville.com http://www.jetblue.com/meetings http://www.meetingnews.com
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