Slow times continue for Fort Smith hoteliers

Reporting on Fort Smith hospitality tax collections is beginning to sound like a broken record — not that anyone remembers the sound of a brok-the sound of a brok-the sound of a brok-the sound of a broken record.

February collections of the hospitality tax totaled $49,116, down 13% from the $56,708 collected in February 2009. For the year, the city has collected $96,756, down 7.5% from the $104,617 in the same period of 2009.

Fort Smith hospitality taxes are collected from a 3% tax on hotel room rates.

“In speaking with hoteliers, they again point to the lack of corporate business and some slippage in (room) rate, and continue to anticipate a slow recovery,” Claude Legris, executive director of the Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau, noted in an e-mail. “We also added inventory (hotel rooms) from the addition of a new hotel property from the previous year which might have contributed to a decline in rate.”
 
Legris said Fort Smith’s occupancy during February was down 13% from the previous year and the room rates were down 5%.

For 2009, Fort Smith hospitality tax collections totaled $671,912, down more than 16% from 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.