Time for Providence to stop hogging state’s tourism money
ABOUT SOUTH COUNTY
Once again, the South County Tourism Council wants to claw back local tourism dollars disbursed to the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau. While a small percentage, it can make a big difference.
It also remains a signature legislative item for Louise Bishop, who oversees the SCTC and promotes South County as a tourist destination. Bishop needs to be heard on this matter.
Several tourism district officials say the contribution to Providence Warwick CVB from every tourism district is an outdated concept crafted by the late Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci when seeking funds for revitalizing the city.
Even a tiny share of Providence Warwick CVB’s $ 3.1 million, which includes dollars from hotels, motels, and other lodgings in South County, is money that can be captured and used locally to support our vital tourism industry.
For SCTC’s purposes, its region encompasses Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown, Narragansett, North Kingstown, East Greenwich, Coventry, Exeter, Hopkinton, Richmond and West Greenwich.
Providence Warwick CVB gets 5% of 5%. That’s right. The 5% state hotel tax is divvied up, with the local town getting 25%, the state Department of Commerce 25%, tourism councils, like SCTC, around the state getting 45%, and 5% going to the Providence Warwick CVB.
In other words, someone from out of state comes to lovely South County for a four- day summer getaway and spends $ 1,800 for a hotel room ($ 450 per night).
From that total, there is the 5% hotel tax with SCTC getting $ 45.50, state Commerce Department getting $ 22.50, the town getting $ 22.50 and the Providence Warwick CVB getting $ 4.50.
Now $ 4.50 doesn’t seem like much on one bill, but multiply that by thousands of people who come to South County for a long weekend and that’s a lot of moolah that should be staying locally.
In 2018- 2019, the amount lost was $ 146,542, and in 2019- 2020 it was $ 133,074. According to SCTC officials, SCTC expects 2024 to end with a loss of about $ 215,000.
It’s a money grab from the Providence Warwick CVB. Worse yet, it won’t even discuss the merits — or demerits — of getting the dough. Alana O’Hare, an experienced spokeswoman from duty in Gov. Dan McKee’s office and now at the Providence Warwick CVB, refused to comment this week.
“We at the CVB won’t be commenting on the bill,” she said flatly in an email, perhaps knowing a losing proposition or afraid to stir a debate in the Smith Street State House.
She has good reason to avoid public comment.
Every time the bill comes up, legislative marauders dispatch it like an unwanted fly at a picnic of greedy eaters.
Yet, in South County — where prices are rising for homes and the cost of living — that money is needed. It can help to bring tourists and their dollars feed the growing and hungry economy, especially businesses and employment.
Town expenses require more than homeowners’ property tax revenue, and various local taxes from tourism help defray those tax increases.
This money is vital to the tourism districts because they use it to buy advertising, whether on billboards, in magazines or digitally for online use, as well as other promotions to tout South County.
“It is imperative (now) that the funds remain in their respective regions to ensure growth,” Bishop said a few years ago, noting the importance of the funds to promote more than just Providence.
According to Bishop, the state created destination marketing organizations ( DMOs) in 1985, which evolved into regional tourism bureaus. She said all regions would be self- sustaining via the hotel tax.
In 1993, Cianci convinced the state legislature to give PVCB a share of the hotel and other lodging taxes across the state to grow Providence, she said in a 2022 interview.
Bishop also rejects the Providence Warwick CVB’s past claims that Southern Rhode Island should underwrite tourism in its area because tourists go north.
Well, the opposite is true, too. Those lodging in the north head south to the wonderful beaches of Narragansett, to the quaint Village of Wickford in North Kingstown, to Block Island and to South Kingstown’s attractions like Theatre By The Sea.
“Bottom line is that Providence visitors do not trickle down to South County and the Providence Warwick CVB doesn’t help drive visitors here,” Bishop told me this week.
“We have Arrivalist, a geolocation company that shows us where our visitors are coming from. If there is an event in Providence I can see if any of their visitors come down to South County and how long they stay. This information would debunk anything PWCVB has to offer on why they should keep the funds,” she said.
If South County is a cathedral of tourism, Louise is the Bishop to believe. Using more than prayer, local legislators need to persuade House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi to show his commitment to the region and ensure passage.