Year-to-date Fort Smith hospitality taxes down 11.5%
by July 7, 2009 2:43 pm 67 views
The comparison to the 2008 boom in business and tourist travelers is making for a significant relative decline in 2009 hospitality tax collections, even with large groups coming to stay in Fort Smith hotels.
Fort Smith Convention & Visitors Bureau reported that May 2009 collections from its 3% lodging tax totaled $60,380, down 25.3% compared to May 2008 collections of $80,914.
The financial difference in the percentage decrease is even more pronounced. The May 2009 collections reflect qualified lodging collections of approximately $2.01 million, compared to May 2008 collections of approximately $2.69 million.
As it is with declining tourism tax collections in Van Buren, the falling Fort Smith decline is attributed to the economic downturn and to a 2008 boom in hotel and restaurant activity related to the more than $80 million in increased commercial and residential repair activity resulting from severe hail and wind storms in April and June, respectively.
Year-to-date the Fort Smith hospitality tax collections are $286,893, down 11.5% compared to the same period in 2008. Fort Smith hospitality tax collections in 2008 totaled $803,591, 11% more than the $723,548 collected in 2007, and more than 19% above 2006 collections.
Claude Legris, executive director of the Fort Smith Convention & Visitors Bureau, said he is hopeful June activity will result in good numbers up against what was a busy June 2008.
“We are anxious to see what kind of positive progress we may see from our June ’09 numbers and how it might have a positive impact on the YTD totals, even though June of 2008 was our all time record month,” Legris said in a statement to The City Wire.
The Van Buren Advertising and Promotion Commission reported Monday (July 6) that its May collections were $34,747, down 10.8% from May 2008. (Van Buren collects a 1% tax on lodging and restaurants.) For the first five months of 2009, collections are $161,740, down 5.1%. Hospitality tax collections for the city in 2008 totaled $410,914, up 7.4% over 2007 and up more than 14.5% over 2006.