Four local hotels are requesting through the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce that Havre create a tourism district to increase funding for marketing. T h e c i t y ' s P l a n n i n g a n d Development Committee will discuss the possibility of creating the district during their meeting Tuesday at 5:15 p.m. in City Hall. The creation of the district would allow a bed tax to be collected from AmericInn, Super 8, TownHouse Inn and the Great Northern Best Western Inn. The money would be used for marketing and advertising of Havre, Mayor Tim Solomon said this morning. Because of recent annexations by the city, including that of two larger hotels, enough beds are within city limits to create a Convention and Visitor's Bureau through the state. A 7 percent tax is collected, and 4 percent of that then goes to the community to spend for tourism promotion. It is estimated that Havre will receive between $18,000 and $20,000 a year, which will be administered for the bureau through the Chamber. Final approval of the bureau by the state is slated for June. The money from a bed tax collected for the Convention and Visitor's Bureau must be spent out-of-state. A separate bed tax collected from the proposed district could be spent within Montana, Solomon said. Residents would not pay the tax, just visitors staying in one of the four hotels, he added. "I think it's fantastic," he said. "Anything we can do to promote tourism in Havre is great and especially where it's dollars from people who are already visiting, where it's not local dollars that are paying for it," he said. "It's pretty straight-forward, and I think it's a great idea, " he added.
Havre may form tourism district
Published: Monday, March 29th, 2010
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