2024 10 15 City Council Packet 1

Unverified text extraction. Check the original page for numbers, names, and layout.

ATHENS TOURISM
TOURISM - HOTEL/MOTEL TAX NUMBERS &
RECOMMENDATION FOR CURRENT & FUTURE FUNDING.
If there is an Average of 5.5 to 8.5 % (7%) of visitors that stay in the average hotel (between
the 4 top visited hotels we collect hotel/motel tax off of) at the price of $134.75 per room
per night with a 4% tax allotted to us – We would be collecting our base return to our
Hotel/Motel tax actual using this calculation. (Of which numbers vary by event and hotel
prices.
i.e. –  Out of 100 Visitors, 7 staying in a hotel at $134.75 per night with a 4% tax would return
to the city a tax of - $37.73
A professional recommendation based on the current SET AND APPROVED annual $75,000
budget to outside agencies– 
$15,000 per year total for events, assets, and tourism enhancing programming per
organization. If an organization has requested less, then the request will stay as submitted.
If $15,000 max is set as policy, then as long as tourism money generated by hotel/motel tax
increases based off of visitors and there is traceable data to confirm this trend, I would
recommend up to a 5% increase if viable per year.
For Consideration and Understanding, on averages alone and based only on current reported
numbers, the following data points speak to hotel/motel tax collected  – 
·Athens Art Council – ALL SERIES in 5 applications (Only 3 by state standards can lawfully be
considered) included – 2023 through 2024, $4,602.31 actual with $6,000 high average – 2024
through 2025, $6,818.53 actual with $7,750 high average collected in h/m taxes.
·Friendly City Festivals - $14,337.40 actual with $17,000 high average in h/m taxes.
·Athens Main Street – Unable to be currently calculated – But comparable programs in similar
sized cities using similar technology – An average of $7,500 in h/m taxes.
·McMinn County Living Heritage Museum - $4,992.87 Calculated average, based on numbers
submitted - $5,390.00 in h/m taxes.
If taxes collected from retail, food, and gas all give structure to these events, while not
actually impacting the hotel/motel tax, I would say based off return on investment, to
minimally double what is brought in on tax, or to supersede it based off on large return, the
recommended number of $15,000 (or more preferably $17,500) would largely enhance
tourism for the city of Athens outside entities. This would increase the limit per organization
from a total of $10,000 per piece by $5,000 this fiscal year.
**If there is a larger ask then the total of $15,000 then it should be considered special
business and considered as such.**
10