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Guest tax increase would go to rebranding effort
Published 11/10/2009 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
Local tourism officials plan to use an increase in local guest tax dollars to further spur economic development in the county, including plans to undertake a rebranding campaign that they hope will continue attracting travelers to the area.
The guest hotel tax -- a 4 percent surcharge in Finney County -- generated about $401,000 for the county for the 2009 fiscal year, July of last year to the June of this year. That is an 18-percent increase in revenue from the previous fiscal year, said Lynn Schoonover, director of the Finney County Convention and Tourism Bureau.
During the Finney County Commission's public meeting Monday, Schoonover and Paul Joseph, president of the Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce, presented the bureau's budget proposal -- $424,500 in 2010 -- to utilize the revenue generated by the guest tax and other sources of income, including plans to rebrand the county's current logo -- Just Plains Success.
The bureau has budgeted $25,000 to begin working with a marketing firm and form a task force to establish a new tag line and logo, Schoonover said.
"What about, 'What Happens in Garden City Stays in Garden City?'" Commissioner Dave Jones said, eliciting laughs from fellow board members.
Schoonover said if rebranding does take place, signs located along state and U.S. highways outside the county and other parts of the state will need to be updated to carry out the theme visually.
"We need something attractive," she said. "That's the first impression travelers have of your community."
The bureau, whose primary aim is to increase hotel lodging occupancy -- to "put heads in beds" -- also uses its revenue to advertise and support local events such as Beef Empire Days and the annual Mexican Fiesta, and also destination sites such as Lee Richardson Zoo.
"A good portion of the hotels around here will tell you that their slowest time is the weekend," Schoonover said. "They're very busy Monday through Friday with business travelers, and oftentimes they'll even be full throughout the week."
Schoonover said she expects Garden City's hotel occupancy rates -- and, thus, tax revenue -- to increase once Dodge City's Boot Hill Casino and Resort is completed and open for business later this year because Dodge City does not have sufficient lodging.
She and Joseph broached the idea of increasing the hotel tax from 4 to 6 percent, an idea she said area hoteliers are "resoundingly on board" with, to remain competitive with Liberal and Dodge City, where the hotel taxes are 6 percent.
"The majority is transient tax, so it's not costing us anything," Joseph said. "The incoming dollars circulate within this community and that's economic development in its purest form."
County commissioners agreed to keep discussion on the topic open over the next several months.
The commission also took the following action at Monday's meeting:
* The commission voted to approve rate increases for employee health insurance premiums in 2010 due to higher administrative costs. An employee will have a $1.96 increase in premium costs per pay period, up from $25.54, and a family will pay $7.82 more, up from $102.16 per pay period, based on the new costs incurred by the county and a three-year average of health claims by county employees.
Found 1 comment(s)!
What money you had stayed in GC
Don't increase the tax. You are hurting the working people that are here monday thru friday filling your hotels. These are Kansas men and women and you are going to punish them with an increase in taxes. I hope every of you get a tax increase on any motel you stay at for being member of the convention and tourism bureau. See how you like that? Why don't you leave the slogan alone as well. Branding is over rated anyway. It is a way for marketers to sell you an idea that only lines their pocket.
Posted by: Roads Scholar on 11/10/2009
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