State tourism industry seeking improvement district legislation

HARRISBURG — Two spokesmen for Pennsylvania’s tourism industry advocated during a hearing last week before a Senate committee for enabling legislation to create tourism improvement districts.

The focus of the Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee was on how these county-level districts called TIDs could generate new revenue for designated projects to promote tourism in order to draw more visitors.

Joe Massaro, president of the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, and John Oliver, president of VisitErie, described TIDs as a vehicle where local hotels can levy their own assessment on guests in order to generate revenue for projects overseen by a board made up of hotel owners.

They are seeking state enabling legislation to set up guidelines giving counties the option of creating TIDs by passing an ordinance. Tourism industry officials have been discussing the idea privately with lawmakers in recent months.

Philadelphia has already created its own TID to boost tourism in that city and the speakers said they want to provide that option to other counties under some standard guidelines.

Under the proposal, a county official would have an ex-officio seat on the TID board.

The board would develop a marketing plan and list of projects along with estimated costs. An annual audit of TID revenue would be sent to the county.

“We see this as a solution to generate tourism promotions or to create new local attractions, based on regional needs, while allowing lodging businesses, who must justify an additional levy on their customers, decision making authority,” Mr. Massaro said.

“The hotels are the ones taking the risk,” he told the committee in discussing the proposal.

“Traditionally, funding to promote our regional destinations and support marketing to attract visitors had come from a hotel occupancy tax …” Mr. Oliver said. “Like many other industries, competition is always brewing. With increased competition from destinations in surrounding states, it’s been tougher and tougher for Pennsylvania destinations to remain competitive in the tourism market. Ultimately, the tourism industry has to explore alternative ways to increase funds in order to maximize travel and tourism visitation.”

TIDs would differ from Neighborhood Improvement Districts (NIDs) already authorized under state law. TID revenue would be used for tourism purposes while NID revenue can be used for a variety of purposes.

A Senate-passed bill (Senate Bill 797) would allow counties of the second class (Allegheny) to create a NID and also use NID revenue for event facilities. This amended bill has cleared the House Appropriations Committee.

Committee Majority Chairman John Yudichak, I-Luzerne, asked if now is the right time to push TIDs with the tourism industry facing economic problems and the pandemic.

Mr. Oliver answered that the tourism industry usually rebounds quickly from bad times due to pentup consumer demand for travel and TIDs will help make that happen. He said more state spending on tourism marketing would help too.

They are seeking state enabling legislation to set up guidelines giving counties the option of creating tourism improvement districts by passing an ordinance.