CVB Travel: Lodging tax increase would support CVB's marketing

|tab|

Susan Wade public relations manager for the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau.|ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

Getting the walls up at the Springfield Exposition Center took a lot of hard work, money and time, and it was just a first step in making the project a success. |ret||ret||tab|

Now that the center is open in Jordan Valley Park, the long-term work begins for the Convention & Visitors Bureau and the company hired by the city to manage the facility, John Q. Hammons Hotels. |ret||ret||tab|

Booking groups and events in the expo center is not a matter of "build it and they will come." |ret||ret||tab|

It takes months, even years, of working with meeting and event planners before a location is selected, and competition from other cities is fierce. |ret||ret||tab|

That's why immediately after funding for the building was announced about a year ago, the CVB a nonprofit organization serving as the city's primary marketing agency responsible for growth in the tourism industry began actively recruiting groups that could use the expo center. In many cases, groups targeted now wouldn't have considered Springfield in the past because facilities large enough to accommodate them didn't exist in the city. |ret||ret||tab|

It's also one reason Springfield voters will be asked in February to approve a half-cent increase in the city's lodging tax paid by hotel and motel customers. |ret||ret||tab|

The proposed tax would generate about $250,000 to enhance CVB marketing programs to attract conventions and sporting events to facilities throughout the city. Those programs include direct sales, advertising, trade shows, collateral material, bid fees and other expenses related to bidding for and hosting major events. |ret||ret||tab|

Another $40,000 in anticipated revenue would be used to help fund the Tourist Information Center at 3315 E. Battlefield Road. |ret||ret||tab|

The Springfield Hotel/Motel Association endorses the proposed increase and the group consisting of local hotel and motel owners and managers will advise the CVB on how the revenues are spent. |ret||ret||tab|

"The association felt the CVB needed the extra funds to bring more conventions and sporting events to the city," said Barbara Withers, association president and executive director at Elliott Lodging. "The entire city will benefit from growth in tourism through increased sales at hotels, retail stores, attractions and restaurants and employment in tourism-related jobs." |ret||ret||tab|

That won't happen, however, without tourism growth, one reason the expo center was built in the first place. |ret||ret||tab|

Though groups have already booked the expo center, it could be a few years before the facility is operating at capacity. Most of the groups scheduled to use the center have previously convened in Springfield, including the center's first booking, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers convention Sept. 23-24. In the past, the group used the trade center. |ret||ret||tab|

The first new business booked in the expo center is the Wally Byam Caravan Club, expected to bring more than 4,000 people to the city in 2005. CVB Sales Director Dana Maugans said it took more than 18 months from first contact with the group to its announcement in July that it would convene in Springfield. |ret||ret||tab|

"When I first contacted the group, they weren't familiar with Springfield at all," Maugans said. "It does take a lot of research and time. And sometimes, no matter how hard and long we work, a group chooses another city." |ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

Details: |ret||ret||tab|

If voters in February approve the proposed half-cent lodging tax increase, the total tax on a hotel or motel room in Springfield will be 11.8 percent. |ret||ret||tab|

The national average is 12.2 percent. |ret||ret||tab|

Current lodging tax rates around the state are: |ret||ret||tab|

14.9 percent in St. Louis;|ret||ret||tab|

13.3 percent to 14.575 percent in St. Louis County;|ret||ret||tab|

14.475 percent in Kansas City; |ret||ret||tab|

13.975 percent in St. Charles; |ret||ret||tab|

11.475 percent in Branson; |ret||ret||tab|

11.3 percent in Joplin; |ret||ret||tab|

11.3 percent in Springfield; |ret||ret||tab|

11.225 percent in Columbia; |ret||ret||tab|

11 percent in Cape Girardeau; |ret||ret||tab|

7.225 percent to 10.725 percent in the Lake of the Ozarks area;|ret||ret||tab|

9.975 percent in St. Joseph; and|ret||ret||tab|

9.225 percent in Jefferson City.|ret||ret||tab|

Springfield's tax consists of a 4.5 percent lodging tax, 4.225 percent state sales tax, 0.5 percent county sales tax, 0.25 percent county law enforcement sales tax, 0.25 percent county parks sales tax, 1 percent city sales tax, 0.25 percent city capital improvements sales tax and 0.125 percent city intersection improvement sales tax. The city's lodging tax is a gross receipts tax, making the effective total tax rate 11.3 percent. |ret||ret||tab|

The CVB receives 2 percent of the current 4.5 percent lodging tax approved by voters in 1998, less a 6 percent collection fee. |ret||ret||tab|

The remaining 2.5 percent is distributed for civic park development (1.5 percent), Wonders of Wildlife Zooquarium (0.5 percent), the ice arena (0.25 percent) and matching grants to assist nonprofit organizations, such as Discovery Center, the Gillioz and Landers theaters and Dickerson Park Zoo, in development of tourism-related facilities (0.25 percent). |ret||ret||tab|

[[In-content Ad]]