Tourism Business Improvement District

Did You Know?

Each year, more than 160 tourism improvement districts throughout the United States raise nearly $350 million for destination marketing. These districts usually include all hotels in a city or county (or in some cases, multiple cities and the county). They place a charge on all hotels, which is typically a percentage of room night sales or a fixed dollar amount per night. Rates are usually 1-2 percent or dollars per night, but can be as high as 4-5 percent or dollars per night.

The charge is usually passed on to the customer and funds raised are typically collected by the local government in the same manner as bed taxes. However, unlike bed taxes they cannot be spent on general programs by the local government. Instead, they are directed to a destination marketing organization, and must be used on programs that put more heads in beds.

The services funded by a tourism improvement district typically include marketing, sales, promotions, website and Internet presence, and group sales. Sometimes, they even include capital improvements or other projects designed to make the destination more appealing to potential visitors.

The term of a tourism improvement district varies. It can be an annual levy, a 5-10 year term, or even longer in some places. A 2016 survey of tourism districts revealed that the majority of districts took between 6-12 months to form.

Following is a list of entities across the country that currently have Tourism Business Improvement Districts. This list was provided by Civitas in Sacramento, CA who assisted the Topeka Lodging Association in the establishment of our Tourism Business Improvement District.

The funding provided by the Topeka Tourism Business District Fee is committed to the design and operation of the downtown plaza. This plaza will become an entertainment ‘hotspot’ for locals as well as visitors. The plaza is being built in the downtown core of Topeka and will be the center of a restaurant and retail market that visitors will not want to miss when in Topeka. The plaza is currently in the final design stages and construction is projected to begin very early in 2019 and is expected to be complete by March of 2020. The downtown plaza effort has currently received over $5,000,000 in corporate donations and is expected to receive another $3,000,000 by the end of 2018.

The Topeka Lodging Association was the impetus behind the initiative to build this plaza as we recognized that Topeka needed a major venue like this to truly make Topeka a destination that visitors would want to see. The first steps were taken by TLA back in 2014 when the local hotel community solicited the City to reinstate a 1% bed tax that was due to expire and dedicate the funds used by the tax to build a downtown plaza. The plaza had been a dream of community leaders for years but the means to realize that dream a reality never materialized until the Topeka Lodging Association came forward with this renewal request.

That was later followed in 2017 by a request from TLA to initiate this Topeka Tourism Business District fee to provide funding for the daily operation of the plaza. While this fee will not provide 100% of the required funding for operation it will certainly provide a large part of the needed funding.

It is the desire of every community to be recognized as a destination and have travelers and tourists want to visit their community and share the good things we have to offer. This plaza will become the catalyst to make that happen.

We at the Topeka Lodging Association welcome you to Topeka and trust you will take time to visit and get to know us.

Thank you,

Topeka Lodging Association