Lodging revenue passes $1M mark

Tax collections for lodging facilities slipped past the $1 million mark for the North Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2017, according to a North Little Rock Advertising and Promotion Commission annual report.

The tax charged for overnight stays in city hotels, motels, bed-and-breakfast businesses, condominiums, cabins, campgrounds and recreational vehicle parks increased from $975,816 in 2016 to $1,000,559 in 2017, according to the report.

Part of the increase came from smaller hotels having to charge the 3 percent tax. In April 2016, the North Little Rock City Council approved applying the city’s 2 percent Advertising and Promotion tax and a 1 percent Parks and Recreation tax to motels and hotels with fewer than 40 rooms.

The change also began applying the tax to homeowners using online sites such as Airbnb to rent their homes to visitors, bypassing hotels. As of Jan. 1 this year, the 2018 lodging tax increased to 3.5 percent for all overnight stays.

Specific tax collections aren’t available because of Act 1102, passed by the 90th General Assembly, that exempted individual business Advertising and Promotion tax amounts from being released publicly.

The report also said North Little Rock attractions helped draw 6.4 million visitors into Pulaski County in 2017.

More than 400,000 baseball fans and event attendees visited Dickey-Stephens Park, 332,807 attended Verizon Arena events, 31,635 participated in sports events within Burns Park, there were 20,796 visitors to the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum and 21,400 attended events in the Argenta Arts District in the city’s downtown.

The full report is available online at northlittlerockap.org/annual-reports/.