PEORIA, Ill. – A public hearing for the proposed Peoria Tourism Improvement District mostly heard from those that would benefit from it.
The hearing was conducted during Tuesday night’s city council meeting. If approved, it would impose a 1.5% tax on all hotel stays in the city. The revenue generated would be given to Discover Peoria to support various promotional tools for increasing tourism in the city, such as marketing and advertising.
The district would last five years, with an option to extend it to 10 years.
Discover Peoria’s J.D. Dalfonso says the revenue generated from the district would give his organization a much needed boost of revenues.
“Peoria has outstanding assets. What we lack is the level of dedicated competitive funding to sell those assets,” Dalfonso said.
Dalfonso stated at the public hearing that Discover Peoria’s total budget in 2016 was $1.9 million. This year, the budget is $2.1 million, but Dalfonso says it has a value of $1.4 million due to inflation.
In addition, Dalfonso says other communities are starting to invest more in their assets, some with state funding, to attract more events and visitors to their communities.
Dalfonso gave an example of what the tax could generate. He says the organization identified four prospective events with around 15,000 request room nights, generating about $2.4 million in hotel revenue and $190,000 in hotel tax revenue. Dalfonso did not state what those events could be.
Dalfonso says the proposal has support from hotel owners, who he says believe it’s about making Peoria a destination location, instead of marketing individual properties.
Matthew Dees owns and operates a Travelodge hotel in Peoria. Dees spoke out in support of the proposal, but raised concerns about the impact of increased costs on homeless and low-income customers who stay at his hotel.
Dees told the council that about a quarter of his guests say anywhere from four days to three weeks. He says his average rate is $53/night, which would add about $1.75 in additional fees for those customers.
The council is expected to vote on approval of the district later this month.
Comments