Room fee helps area score big

The thousands of athletes at play around Spokane this week are scoring for a new local group while they score for themselves and their teams. With every room they occupy, and every night they stay, they and their families contribute a little something to a Tourism Promotion Area formed to attract still more visitors. On June 1, hotels and motels with more than 40 rooms began collecting a fee that varies from 50 cents to $1.50 per room per night, depending on location and revenues. The Spokane Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that with 95 percent of the 6,700 rooms in the county occupied — just try finding a vacancy — about $40,000 will be collected from the perspiring masses. The fee was sought by Spokane hoteliers beset by a falloff in tourism following the 9/11 attacks, the SARS scare and other problems. The market had too many beds and too few heads. Occupancy was barely above 50 percent. “Anything that could happen to the industry happened,” says CVB President John Brewer. The Washington Legislature approved the fee in 2003. Then Senate Majority Leader Jim West, now Spokane’s mayor, sponsored a bill that allows most cities and counties to impose a fee of up to $2 per room, with the requirement every dime raised be dedicated to marketing and promotional campaigns that would generate more hotel stays. The TPA fee will add almost $448,000 to the 2004 Spokane Convention and Visitors Bureau budget, which is now a little less than $1.5 million. Some communities of similar size that compete for the same events sought by Spokane have budgets of around $3 million, Brewer says. The 2005 budget will grow to $2.4 million thanks to $942,000 in TPA funds, an estimate Brewer says is conservative. The fees will be controlled by a TPA commission with four Spokane hoteliers and two each from Spokane Valley and unincorporated Spokane County. Liberty Lake is expected to join soon. The county commissioners must approve the annual budget. The CVB and the Spokane Regional Sports Commission will receive the bulk of the funds. Most will be dedicated to the expansion of their own promotional activities, but some will be set aside for grants to community groups planning events that will attract visitors. The TPA will retain $50,000 for the same purpose. Brewer says the CVB and sports commission can award grants of $3,000 or less. Larger amounts must be approved by the TPA. Groups can apply for funding now, but no money will be distributed until January 2005. With its share, he says, the CVB intends to hire five new employees, four in sales. Representatives will attend more domestic and international trade shows. More travel writers and other media will be brought into the area. More focus will be directed to the slow winter season, and new audiences. “Our funds will allow us to focus on niche markets,” he says. “We don’t have to paint with a broad brush.” Surveys indicate there may be more potential business from Texas and Southern California. High media costs have made tapping those markets difficult. Some tactics will be simple. For example, the 2004-2005 Spokane Regional Visitors Guide was printed with two covers. One directed at families shows a young boy at the Silverwood amusement park. A second aimed at those with more adventure in mind captures whitewater rafters in mid splash. Brewer makes no excuses for the nod to North Idaho. “What helps the whole region helps the county,” he says. Brewer says the goal is an increase of 110,000 room-nights in 2005 compared with 2003’s relatively poor 1.3 million. The CVB also projects that room occupancy will increase by 4 percent, to 59 percent, and visitor spending will increase $61 million to $567 million. Brewer says the area is surfing the top of a cyclical wave in conventioneering. He hopes to sustain the activity through 2005, with the expectation disruption created by construction on the new convention center will hurt business until the new facility is completed in 2007. After that, bookings could double. The TPA board of directors will meet Monday to review the budget, which then goes to the county commissioners for final action. Brewer says the county should receive the first check from the Department of Revenue, which is collecting the fee from the hotels, around Sept. 1. Despite limited resources, Spokane has attracted major events like the 2002 Franklin Graham crusade, the Western Regional Soccer Tournament, the BMW Motorcycle Owners rally next month and — best of all — the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. With more promotional funds and the prospect of a new convention center, the hospitality business has much to look forward to, and can look in the mirror for much of the credit. “It’s an industry taking its future into its own hands,” says Brewer.