2008 Woodie Awards
Lodging tax funds tourism budget
Diane Poelker
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News
Travelers don't mind paying the price to spend the night in Kirksville.
In less than a year, a 3.6 percent lodging tax added to the price of Kirksville hotel rooms has generated more than $100,000 for the city. Tourism Director Debi Boughton said the tax returns have exceeded expectations.
"We're way over our best guess of the budget," Boughton said. "We did think of about $85,000 this first year but right now [the $106,000] only includes three-fourths [of the year]."
Last August, Kirksville voters approved adding a lodging tax to all hotel stays in the city. Boughton said money from the tax is designated for establishing and maintaining a Kirksville area tourism bureau.
"There was no tourism office, no tourism director, nothing [before the tax passed]," Boughton said. "The first part of the money was spent setting up the office. ... But the main part of our money, the main part of our budget for 2007-2008 is spent on advertising and marketing."
Boughton said the city based the original tourism budget estimate on data from the 2004-05 fiscal year. However, Boughton has set the bar higher for 2008, budgeting bureau spending at $133,650, according to the City of Kirksville's Web site.
"We based our 2008 budget on sort of our best hope - on the 2007 numbers," Boughton said.
She said she was unsure whether the early 2004 numbers were unusually low, or if the 2007 numbers were higher than average. Boughton said the tourism budget might be unpredictable until she has tourism trend data for a two-or-three year period.
"This has just been the first year, so we haven't really tracked when the big events are," Boughton said. "I hope to have a master calendar next year so that we can ... keep the hotels as full as possible."
Boughton said that during the last few months the tourism bureau put up new signs on the north and south ends of town, purchased ads in local tourism magazines and participated in tourism tradeshows in the hopes of attracting convention groups to the area. Boughton said she wants to spend the surplus money on additional marketing.
In less than a year, a 3.6 percent lodging tax added to the price of Kirksville hotel rooms has generated more than $100,000 for the city. Tourism Director Debi Boughton said the tax returns have exceeded expectations.
"We're way over our best guess of the budget," Boughton said. "We did think of about $85,000 this first year but right now [the $106,000] only includes three-fourths [of the year]."
Last August, Kirksville voters approved adding a lodging tax to all hotel stays in the city. Boughton said money from the tax is designated for establishing and maintaining a Kirksville area tourism bureau.
"There was no tourism office, no tourism director, nothing [before the tax passed]," Boughton said. "The first part of the money was spent setting up the office. ... But the main part of our money, the main part of our budget for 2007-2008 is spent on advertising and marketing."
Boughton said the city based the original tourism budget estimate on data from the 2004-05 fiscal year. However, Boughton has set the bar higher for 2008, budgeting bureau spending at $133,650, according to the City of Kirksville's Web site.
"We based our 2008 budget on sort of our best hope - on the 2007 numbers," Boughton said.
She said she was unsure whether the early 2004 numbers were unusually low, or if the 2007 numbers were higher than average. Boughton said the tourism budget might be unpredictable until she has tourism trend data for a two-or-three year period.
"This has just been the first year, so we haven't really tracked when the big events are," Boughton said. "I hope to have a master calendar next year so that we can ... keep the hotels as full as possible."
Boughton said that during the last few months the tourism bureau put up new signs on the north and south ends of town, purchased ads in local tourism magazines and participated in tourism tradeshows in the hopes of attracting convention groups to the area. Boughton said she wants to spend the surplus money on additional marketing.
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