Tourism Talk | Taxes show tourism turnaround

Revenue from tourism-related taxes is up, indicating that the Grand Strand hospitality industry is beginning to make up for ground lost in the recession, an industry expert said.

Horry County's revenue from the 1.5 percent local hospitality fee was up 5.1 percent in June compared with the same month last year, and July likely saw 20 percent gains, a sign that the area may be making up for revenue lost during the recession, said Taylor Damonte, director of the Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism at Coastal Carolina University.

The fee speaks to the condition of the entire hospitality industry, Damonte said, as it applies to all food, beverage and admissions purchases in addition to money spent on hotels.

Not only are there more people staying along the Grand Strand, they may also be in a stronger position to spend, Damonte said. Hospitality fee collections - the broader measure of spending - rose faster than accommodations tax revenue - a measure of money spent on hotels - for May, the most recent data available, showing that tourists may be spending more once they arrive, he said.

Whether or not the rise in spending has allowed businesses to raise their prices is unclear.

"It doesn't tell you whether [consumers] played more golf or paid more to play golf," Damonte said. "It doesn't mean they ate out more or they paid more when they ate out."

Accommodations tax and hospitality fee collections still remain well below their peak in fiscal year 2008, and it may take years to make up for the lost revenue, he said.

"If we continue this double-digit increase, it would take us at least a year and a half to make up what we've lost in the last year and a half," Damonte said. "I think substantially more time ... between two and three years."

The rise in state and local tourism-related tax collections will help fill the coffers at area chambers of commerce, but the money is also an encouraging sign for many additional public and nonprofit organizations, said Brad Dean, president and chief executive of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.

For example, the county directs some of its accommodations tax collections to beach renourishment, the Horry County Museum and area campground associations.

The city of Myrtle Beach uses its local accommodation taxes to pay for police and fire services, as the city must protect tourists in addition to residents, spokesman Mark Kruea said. Hospitality fee revenue goes toward capital improvement projects such as beach renourishment and work on stormwater systems in areas with hotels.