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Looks like Disney vacations are going to become more expensive!
Tourism tax should go up, panel agrees
But hotelier Harris Rosen says the spending plan must focus more on ads.
David Damron | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted June 16, 2006
Orange County should raise its resort tax and spend the extra money to market the area to more tourists and help fund nearly $1 billion in downtown arts and sports projects, a key panel said Thursday.
In a 6-1 vote, the county's advisory Tourist Development Council backed a plan led by Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to raise a tax on hotel guests from 5 percent to 6 percent. The annual $25 million in added revenue would be split between tourism ads and civic projects.
The plan is opposed by a faction of the tourism industry.
"This [vote] was very impactful in terms of strengthening our tourism industry," Crotty said, noting that tough negotiations lie ahead in crafting a funding plan for downtown projects.
The panel's backing is largely symbolic, but it clears a safe political path for Orange County commissioners to approve the tax increase, perhaps as early as next month. Orange leaders then will hear individual pitches from the trio of civic projects and likely settle on funding levels for each one.
As a concession to tourism officials, the advertising effort will receive the first two years of added revenue in any funding scheme, or about $51 million. But that money would return to the downtown projects' funding pot over 10 years, so that the split evens out.
Backers of a new performing-arts center, basketball arena and renovated Citrus Bowl have lobbied county leaders hardest to increase the resort tax to help pay for what is now a $950 million lineup of downtown projects.
"It's a big day," arts center Chairman Jim Pugh said after the supportive vote.
But tourism leaders, namely hotel magnate Harris Rosen, have argued that the area's tourism economy is sagging, and that any resort-tax hike should help prop up the industry first.
Despite recent record years for area visitors and tourist-tax collections, Rosen and others in the industry say only a more aggressive ad campaign can keep Central Florida's visitor economy healthy.
Citing lower occupancy rates, high gas prices, hurricane and terrorism threats, as well as troubling health-care and utility-cost trends, Rosen said, "the industry is indeed in decline."
"The tourist-development tax was meant to support our industry -- tourism," Rosen said in a lengthy speech at the council's meeting at the Orange County Convention Center. He said his own financial health and thousands of jobs are at stake.
At the end, Rosen pushed a plan that would steer all added resort-tax revenue into tourism marketing for as many as five years, with no money going to the projects in that time unless an 80 percent occupancy level is reached at area hotels. Current occupancy rates hover around 70 percent. After that, the projects could share in added tax revenues, he said.
Rosen blamed political opposition to his plan on the County Commission, which he said has been "intimidated and bullied" by the Orlando Sentinel into opposing it. But no one backed Rosen's proposal, and it died for lack of support.
Backers of the prevailing blueprint say balancing the added revenues between community and industry needs benefits both groups.
"The community venues will also [attract] . . . visitors," Dyer said. "It's not just helping the residents here; it's also helping tourism, to improve those venues."
David Damron can be reached at ddamron@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5311.
Tourism tax should go up, panel agrees
But hotelier Harris Rosen says the spending plan must focus more on ads.
David Damron | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted June 16, 2006
Orange County should raise its resort tax and spend the extra money to market the area to more tourists and help fund nearly $1 billion in downtown arts and sports projects, a key panel said Thursday.
In a 6-1 vote, the county's advisory Tourist Development Council backed a plan led by Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to raise a tax on hotel guests from 5 percent to 6 percent. The annual $25 million in added revenue would be split between tourism ads and civic projects.
The plan is opposed by a faction of the tourism industry.
"This [vote] was very impactful in terms of strengthening our tourism industry," Crotty said, noting that tough negotiations lie ahead in crafting a funding plan for downtown projects.
The panel's backing is largely symbolic, but it clears a safe political path for Orange County commissioners to approve the tax increase, perhaps as early as next month. Orange leaders then will hear individual pitches from the trio of civic projects and likely settle on funding levels for each one.
As a concession to tourism officials, the advertising effort will receive the first two years of added revenue in any funding scheme, or about $51 million. But that money would return to the downtown projects' funding pot over 10 years, so that the split evens out.
Backers of a new performing-arts center, basketball arena and renovated Citrus Bowl have lobbied county leaders hardest to increase the resort tax to help pay for what is now a $950 million lineup of downtown projects.
"It's a big day," arts center Chairman Jim Pugh said after the supportive vote.
But tourism leaders, namely hotel magnate Harris Rosen, have argued that the area's tourism economy is sagging, and that any resort-tax hike should help prop up the industry first.
Despite recent record years for area visitors and tourist-tax collections, Rosen and others in the industry say only a more aggressive ad campaign can keep Central Florida's visitor economy healthy.
Citing lower occupancy rates, high gas prices, hurricane and terrorism threats, as well as troubling health-care and utility-cost trends, Rosen said, "the industry is indeed in decline."
"The tourist-development tax was meant to support our industry -- tourism," Rosen said in a lengthy speech at the council's meeting at the Orange County Convention Center. He said his own financial health and thousands of jobs are at stake.
At the end, Rosen pushed a plan that would steer all added resort-tax revenue into tourism marketing for as many as five years, with no money going to the projects in that time unless an 80 percent occupancy level is reached at area hotels. Current occupancy rates hover around 70 percent. After that, the projects could share in added tax revenues, he said.
Rosen blamed political opposition to his plan on the County Commission, which he said has been "intimidated and bullied" by the Orlando Sentinel into opposing it. But no one backed Rosen's proposal, and it died for lack of support.
Backers of the prevailing blueprint say balancing the added revenues between community and industry needs benefits both groups.
"The community venues will also [attract] . . . visitors," Dyer said. "It's not just helping the residents here; it's also helping tourism, to improve those venues."
David Damron can be reached at ddamron@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5311.
