Anchorage has a bigger pot of money to market itself to tourists and finance its new convention center due to a significant increase in last year’s hotel and motel room tax collections.

An increase in the tax rate and a rise in the number of visitors who spent the night in hotels and motels last year fueled a record-breaking year for room taxes, city officials said Monday.

More than a million tourists visited Anchorage last year, according to the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The city estimates last year’s room tax revenue will reach $19.1 million, once results are tallied from the final quarter of the year. The city collected $11.9 million in 2005.

“It’s a very strong year,” Daniel Moore, the city treasurer, said Monday.

The tax dollars are distributed equally among the city’s visitors bureau, the city’s $103 million convention center expansion, and basic city services.

Two years ago, Anchorage voters approved increasing the room tax from 8 to 12 percent to help pay for the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, now under construction downtown.

Aside from the increased room tax, the city had predicted a very modest tax gain from growth in the hotel and motel sector — about 1 percent per year.

Instead, city officials said Monday they expect to gain 7.3 percent due to increased occupancy and higher room fees.

“It’s like seven years of growth in one year,” said Jeff Sinz, the city’s chief fiscal officer.

That’s “great news,” said Bruce Bustamente, the visitors bureau’s chief executive.

As a result, the bureau will be able to spend more to attract tourists and conventions to Anchorage, he said.

Source: www.adn.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Hotel, Real Estate. Tags: Anchorage city services Convention Center finance Hotels Moore Occupancy Visitors Bureau . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.