SLO County News BlogGolf, Wine, Real Estate, Business & Travel NewsSLO Business Improvement DistrictTuesday, March 22, 2005San Luis Obispo County lodging owners may soon be asked to impose a new fee on their guests to help fund tourism promotion.The fee would be $1 per room per night, and it would be collected through a countywide business improvement district (BID) being proposed by the Visitors & Conference Bureau to offset dwindling municipal support for tourism efforts. "It's new for us, certainly, but it's not a new idea," said Jonni Biaggini, executive director for the county's VCB. Cities such as Sacramento and Huntington Beach, as well as San Mateo and Sonoma counties already have these districts in place, she said. "I would venture to say that in the next two to three years, almost every tourist destination will be establishing BID's," Biaggini said. Local governments, faced with declining revenues or budget deficits, are limiting their tourism funding in favor of maintaining such essential services as police, fire and social programs, she said. The additional fee could boost the VCB's current $826,901 budget by as much as another $2 million annually. That would put San Luis Obispo County in a better position to compete with neighboring tourist destinations in Santa Barbara and Monterey counties, whose current tourism budgets are $1.6 million and $2.6 million, respectively, Biaggini said. The self-assessment district, which would operate similarly to the SLO Downtown Association, would first require local governments' consent, as well as approval by more than half of the VCB's lodging members before it could be implemented. Biaggini estimates the review and approval process will take about a year. Visitors bureau targeting tourism bucks The Tribune, Leslie E. Stevens To see more of The Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to www.sanluisobispo.com. (c) 2005, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. Read More
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