Tourism group to get bigger slice

Lodging tax money to make up for state funding cut

The Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau will get a bigger slice of Charleston County's lodging tax this year.

And the tourism group has agreed, starting next year, to aid Charleston County Council by making recommendations on applications from other groups hoping for lodging tax money.

The bureau last month asked council for additional money to compensate for a more than $500,000 cut in state funding. Last week, council approved the request. Included in a list of groups council approved to get money from the county's accommodations fee in fiscal year 2009 is an additional $540,000 for the visitors bureau.

The group already receives 10 percent of the county's 2 percent tax on hotel rooms and vacation rentals. That was about $1 million last year, said Helen Hill, the bureau's executive director.

The additional money is "critical to maintain marketing and advertising," Hill said. She said the bureau will use the money to promote tourism through print, Internet and television.

Councilman Curtis Bostic said he supported giving the group the additional money because it provides an essential service to the Charleston area and because the group helps promote other local tourism-related groups that don't receive lodging tax money.

He also said he welcomes the group's recommendations on which programs to fund in the future. Initially, he said, he was uneasy about the idea of one tourism group reviewing applications from other groups. His biggest concern, he said, was that the council might be asking an outside group to step in and do a job that county staffers should do. It's important not to "give a group the authority and responsibility of government," he said.

But, he said, the bureau isn't going to make decisions on which groups get money. It's only going to make recommendations. He said he welcomes recommendations from other groups as well.

Hill said her group and the College of Charleston's Office of Tourism Analysis agreed to review applications after being asked by some council members. The bureau can offer assistance, such as listing events on its Web site, to other groups that apply for lodging tax money, she said. And, she said, "we can give County Council good information that will bring real economic development to Charleston County."

Last week, County Council voted 6-3 in favor of a list of recipients of 2009 accommodations fee money. The list included 35 other groups that will receive about $903,000 in lodging tax money.

Dickie Schweers, Joe McKeown and Paul Thurmond voted against the list. Schweers said "the whole accommodations fee allocation process, in my mind, has been a nightmare."

The money is supposed to be given to groups that will attract more tourists to Charleston, he said, but the process is cumbersome, and council members don't have a clear understanding of which groups are more likely to draw tourists.