The Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau will kick off a roughly $500,000 campaign today in an effort to persuade Denver voters to approve an increase by 1 percentage point of the city’s lodging tax.
“I think we have a very strong message – it’s all about improving our economy and having the visitor pay to help us do that,” convention bureau president Richard Scharf said.
If approved in November, Denver’s hotel tax would increase from 13.85 percent to 14.85 percent. That would pump an additional $4 million into the convention bureau’s $8.6 million annual budget. The funds would be used to promote Denver as a destination for tourists and conventioneers.
The campaign will be funded through donations from the convention bureau’s 900 members, including the Metro Denver Hotel Association, Scharf said.
The Tourism Pays! campaign could face competition for dollars from the two budget- reform measures on November’s ballot. Supporters of those measures have raised over $2 million.
The Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., which has given $500,000 to Referendums C and D, will decide next week if it will provide financial backing to the campaign for a lodging-tax increase, executive vice president Tom Clark said.
“Any time there are an undetermined number of tax issues on the ballot, voters look for something to vote against,” he said. “But I don’t know if this one will be singled out by local taxpayers, because it’s really not a tax they would have to pay.”
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
