Newport Beach : Bed Tax Hike Asked to Fund Tourist Promotion

In the midst of a disappointing tourist season, a proposal for a 1% hike in the city’s bed tax was outlined this week by the city’s Visitors and Convention Bureau.

According to Assistant City Manager Ken Delino, the hike could provide more than $400,000 for expanded operation of the Newport Beach tourism bureau.

The bureau presented the proposal, which would push the tax rate on hotel rooms in the city from 8% to 9%, at Monday’s City Council meeting. The council is expected to vote on it Aug. 11.

Efforts to boost waning occupancy percentages in Newport Beach hotels from the low 60s back up to the healthy high 70s or to 80 would be the goal of a promotional campaign launched by the bureau if the tax is approved.

“Things are absolutely flat” for the Newport Beach tourism industry this summer, according to Chip Stuckmeyer, president of the bureau and director of sales at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel.

Stuckmeyer said experts had predicted a busy season, but terrorist-shy tourists who canceled plans to visit Europe apparently did not choose Newport Beach as an alternate destination.

If the proposal passes, the bureau will begin what Stuckmeyer calls “an extremely aggressive marketing effort” and hire an experienced professional director to supervise direct mail and sales campaigns.

The bureau, which is nonprofit and independent of the city government, currently operates on an annual budget of approximately $50,000, which covers administrative costs and pays the salary of one office worker.