CVB Travel: Hotel-motel tax will generate $285,000 for CVB

Susan Wade is the public relations manager with the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Springfield's travel industry and the economic impact it creates are about to grow thanks to voters who approved a one-half cent increase in the city's hotel-motel tax.

The tax that passed Feb. 3 is expected to generate about $285,000 annually for the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, which was operating on $2.2 million annually. The bureau is the city's primary marketing agency with the goal of increasing overnight travel and occupied rooms in Springfield hotels and motels.

About $245,000 of the money generated by the tax will go toward marketing efforts to draw more conventions and sports events to Springfield.

Conventions and sports have a significant impact on Springfield's economy. From January through November 2003, meetings and conventions accounted for 195,225 occupied rooms in Springfield, 19.4 percent of the total of 1,007,185 occupied rooms. The bureau estimates sports events accounted for more than 50,000 occupied rooms in 2003.

Now that the Springfield Exposition Center is open and additional funding for marketing is available, meetings and convention numbers will grow because the bureau and Expo Center management company can go after groups that in the past selected other cities with larger meeting facilities.

Sports event development also is expected considering the city's growing reputation as a great place for amateur sporting events. Not only does Springfield have the high-quality facilities needed to host events, the designation last year as a "Sports City USA" in Missouri by Sports Illustrated magazine and as a host city in the Olympic Community Development Program by the U.S. Olympic Congress adds to the city's appeal for sports event planners.

With their "yes" ballots, Springfield voters showed they know growth doesn't just happen. It takes work and money to inform people about the city's amenities for conventions and sports through direct sales, advertising, public relations and other marketing programs.

Growth in Springfield's travel industry is important because it is one of the city's top five industries and the estimated 2.3 million annual overnight visitors pour significant amounts of money into the city's coffers through the taxes they pay and from spending money at hotels, shopping, visiting attractions, attending events and dining at restaurants.

About 100,000 of those visitors annually seek information from the tourist information centers operated by the Convention and Visitors Bureau. That's why $40,000 of the tax revenue will be used to pay a portion of operating costs for the Tourist Information Center at 3315 E. Battlefield Road.