You may have noticed that local governments in the US have been increasing their hotel and resort taxes over the last few months and years. When booking your next event, be sure to be on the lookout for state or city tourism tax increases as they could throw off your event budgeting. Cruise-related taxes are relatively consistent and therefore much easier to reliably predict and factor into budgets. Travel Weekly Magazine recently covered the subject in-depth:

Travel Weekly: “Facing record deficits, states and cities crank up hotel taxes”
“When budgets get tight, politicians turn to taxes. And hotel and tourism taxes often make easy targets because they are paid by out-of-town visitors — in other words, by somebody else’s constituents.
This year is no exception. From Hawaii to New York and points in between, local and state budget writers are looking at a variety of travel-related taxes to shore up everything from major budget shortfalls to convention and stadium operations and law enforcement.”
Read the full article at TravelWeekly.com

Filed under: Meeting & Incentive News