With the support of local tourism officials and hotel operators, San Francisco lawmakers have approved a new 1 to 1.5 percent hotel room tax that will fund the development of a so-called Tourism Improvement District (TID) in and around San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center, the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau (SFCVB) announced last month. Both the tax and the TID were approved on Dec. 16 as part of a 15-year assessment that took effect yesterday.
"This Tourism Improvement District is an investment in tourism, San Francisco's No. 1 industry and No. 1 employer," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. "This TID will not only benefit our local hotels and their employees, but every visitor we welcome into our city. These visitors spent over $8 billion in 2007 and we need to ensure that these same visitors continue to come to San Francisco for both business and pleasure."
San Francisco's new hotel tax—which will levy a 1 to 1.5 percent tax on hotel rooms in two distinct tourism "zones" in the city, based on their proximity to the convention center—will generate approximately $45 million with which to make improvements to Moscone Convention Center. In addition, it will generate approximately $18 million for use by the SFCVB in marketing San Francisco as a travel destination.
"Today's approval of a Tourism Improvement District is a landmark for the future of San Francisco and a breakthrough for the travel industry," SFCVB President and CEO Joe D'Alessandro said in a statement. "For San Francisco to remain competitive, it was crucial that we develop a long-term strategy that would ensure a steady revenue flow necessary to continue to promote San Francisco as one of the world's premier destinations."
On Oct. 7, 2008, the City and County of San Francisco sent to local hotel general managers a petition for the TID. As of Oct. 20, 2008, 90 percent of the petitions had been returned in support of the proposed TID, according to SFCVB. In November, San Francisco's Office of Elections sent official ballots to hotel owners and operators, who were given 45 days to submit their votes on the TID and its accompanying tax. When the ballots were counted on Dec. 16, 95 percent had been returned in favor of the TID.
For more information about San Francisco's new TID, visit
www.SFCVB.org/members/TID.asp.