Community Leaders want to see an increase to the Hotel Room Tax. That's the tax people pay when they book a hotel room in Erie County. It currently stands at 5%, but local leaders want the state legislature to allow it to be raised to 7%.
The additional money would be used to promote tourism in Erie County.
"Quite frankly, the tourism dollars coming from the state have dwindled over the years because of the decreased revenue and the budget challenges that we face. So, it's really left to the local communities now to promote their interests . This is the way they can generate those dollars to be able to do that," said State Representative Curt Sonney. (R-Erie)
1500 additional hotel rooms have been built in Erie County over the past ten years. Also, many major tourist attractions have been opened during that time. However, VisitErie's John Oliver says without advertising dollars, the tourists will not come.
"There's some huge markets very close," he said. "We have an incredible tourism product here that's been developed. What we haven't been able to do is tell enough people about what we have."
The main objective for the advertising campaign would be to promote Erie as a year-round tourist destination. Ron Sertz, the director of the Erie County Sports Commission, says his group will do its part to bring events to the area that people want to see.
"In Erie, the summer cooks pretty good," he said. " So we're always looking at the shoulder seasons. We're looking at the winter. We're looking at events like gymnastics and bowling and pool. All of these peripheral sports that bring big events into town and a lot of tourism to our city."
Even the businesses where customers would pay the extra taxes are on board. Nick Scott Jr., of Scott Enterprises, says the bottom line is jobs.
"Absolutely. We've got 2500 employees in our company. 400 of them are supervisors and managers. They depend on the tourism traffic in Erie," he said.
The local tourist agency, VisitErie, claims that raising the hotel room tax would increase visitor spending from $900 million a year to over $1 billion.
The bill to permit Erie County to raise the hotel tax passed the State House. It still must be adopted by the Senate.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and WICU. All Rights Reserved.
