Tourism expert reacts to sales tax to pay for tourism marketing
A plan to allow local governments in Horry County to tack on an additional one penny in sales tax to pay for tourism marketing is one step closer to becoming law.On Tuesday, a House subcommittee approved the bill on a 3-to-2 vote. It now heads to the House Ways and Means committee on Thursday.
If it becomes law, the measure would allow each municipal government in Horry County to approve the tax hike separately.
The bill's co-sponsor says if all the local governments approved it, the tax could bring in up to $60 million dollars to pay for tourism marketing campaigns.
And today, Dr. Taylor Damonte, Director of the Brittain Center for Resort Tourism at Coastal Carolina University told me if the money is used solely for marketing the grand strand, then he thinks the additional tax is a good idea. He says when business is bad, that's the toughest time to find marketing dollars. But this is also when it can be most effective.
He says the evidence has shown that marketing dollars spent on tourism generate good returns on their investment. “I think that now is the time if there ever was one to invest in marketing the community. We have an opportunity to tell our story to an audience that wants to hear how to add value to their vacation expenditures. We have so many things to talk about. And now is the time families are looking to maximize values in their vacations. “
Dr. Damonte says there is another factor that is related to travel expenses, and time. He says there are a number of consumer behaviors that research shows national length of stay of a three to four day vacation is increasing. He says the seven day or multi- week vacations are declining. He says over the last five years this has been the trend. And he says the fact that Myrtle Beach is within a day’s drive for domestic origin markets suggest that the Grand Strand has an opportunity to maximize the positive impact of that trend.
Dr. Damonte says over the last 52 weeks, the occupancy rate along the Grand Strand is down about 8 percent compared to this time last year. “But when we're hearing that visitation in Florida is down more than 14 percent, we appear to be doing better than the long haul destinations are in this environment. And I think we're going to do better still.”
He told me it appears the declining rate of visitation is slowing. But he says March is a little difficult to judge because this year Easter and all the religious holidays, which are traditionally the start of the tourism season, are pushed back to April. He says last year was the earliest Easter and Passover had occurred in decades. This year is the exact opposite. He says while March has been off in occupancy, April appears to be shaping up to be a strong month.
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on 03/25 at 03:13 PM
