Tourism professionals in the state of Massachusetts in the United States have long complained about receive insufficient funds compared with other destinations. According to the Boston Globe, 7.5 million will have been distributed last year to support local tourism marketing agencies. A figure far too low to reposition the destination Boston in the post-Covid era.
Especially as hotel nights in Boston and the surrounding area generated more than 300 million euros in tax revenue before the crisis. for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
But this windfall has since dried up. With the Covid crisis, hotel occupancy rates in the metropolitan area have collapsed. From an average of 82% in 2019, this rate fell to 44.5% in the first eleven months of 2021..
The average price of a night's stay was down from 20% on average compared with 2019. According to the experts, the situation for hotels is not expected to improve until 2024.
The "Tourism destination marketing district" behind the new tax
In August 2021, a new a new promotional body called the Tourism Destination Marketing District. It brings together all the tourism players in Boston and neighbouring Cambridge. The new entity has been granted the right to collect tax - called a "contribution" by local elected representatives. This is allocated directly to a promotional fund. The promoters of this tax estimate that it should generate some 40 million dollars annually..
For people staying in both Boston and Cambridge, overnight hotel stays have therefore risen by 1.6% since October. It would appear that another city will also be following in the footsteps of Boston and Cambridge. The second most populous urban area in Massachusetts, Springfieldis also looking to set up a Tourism Destination Marketing District. The new organisation could become a reality in the spring. This would also be reflected in a tax on hotel nights. This tax would in turn be paid into a local tourism promotion fund.
