Tag Archives: Tourism Commission
Thursday, May 13, 2021 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
Tourism Commission recommendations include gondolas funded by hotel tax
A transit system geared toward tourists, paying Austin musicians to promote local tourism, and a variety of programming and promotional efforts for historic sites are among a new batch of recommended uses for the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars. This…
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 by Chad Swiatecki
Entertainment & Events
Questions abound with convention center’s future up in the air
With up being the only viable direction in which to significantly expand the Austin Convention Center, the deal structure and timeline for such a project appears to have gotten far more complicated. Former City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan is now…
Wednesday, January 13, 2021 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
Lodging industry slows push for hotel tax to fund housing, aid for homeless
Leaders of the city’s lodging industry have slowed their push to create a new tax on hotel stays that would indirectly free up money to fund services for the homeless. The Tourism Commission received an update at its Monday meeting…
Thursday, August 20, 2020 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
Study weighs market impact of convention center expansion, predicts rebound from Covid-19
A new market analysis finds that the proposed expansion of the Austin Convention Center would bring more than 1,700 jobs to the city and add $306 million in annual economic impact from the local events and tourism industry. The market viability study…
Monday, June 15, 2020 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
Tourism leaders see multiyear hit to tourism business and hotel tax from Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic is expected to cause a drop in local tourism and events business for at least five years, with a decline of at least 25 percent in hotel business this year and an ongoing drag on the city’s…
Wednesday, December 18, 2019 by Chad Swiatecki
Planning
Tourism Commission hears latest on convention center progress, homelessness funds
City staffers are engaged in talks with the owners of two and a half blocks of property located west of the Austin Convention Center in an attempt to learn what kinds of sales, leases or other property agreements can be…
Wednesday, August 14, 2019 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
Tourism Commission wants agreement between city, short-term rental companies
The Tourism Commission has asked City Council to change its long-held stance toward short-term rental platforms like Airbnb in favor of an agreement that would earn the city millions of dollars in new Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue each year. At…
Monday, May 20, 2019 by Chad Swiatecki
Entertainment & Events
Tourism Commission backs 2017 findings pushing convention center expansion
Signaling more possible momentum for a push to expand the Austin Convention Center, the city’s Tourism Commission has recommended City Council adopt a 2017 report outlining the benefits and possible frameworks for the project. At last week’s meeting, the commission…
Monday, April 22, 2019 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
Tourism Commission asks Council to pursue hotel tax collection on STRs
The Tourism Commission wants City Council to revisit and possibly make changes to its ordinance covering short-term rentals, with the goal of increasing the amount of Hotel Occupancy Tax coming into city coffers. The commission voted unanimously at this month’s…
Monday, March 25, 2019 by Elizabeth Pagano
Reporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Something we agree on
The link between governmental and residential Texas houses… Occasionally a contentious zoning case stirs up old memories that have been tucked away, but not forgotten. In the wake of the Historic Landmark commissioners’ reaction to the presented plans for 1602…
Friday, December 14, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
Tourism Commission pushes for broader use of hotel tax dollars
Austin’s Tourism Commission wants to see the city push for more latitude in how to spend local hotel occupancy tax dollars, with an eye toward next year’s session of the state Legislature. At Monday’s meeting, the commission approved a recommendation…
Monday, October 15, 2018 by Elizabeth Pagano
Reporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: The next wave of humanity
Visit commission meetings… The fractious nature of the city’s newly convened Tourism Commission brought about consideration Monday of amending the group’s bylaws, with the possibility of requiring at least seven votes to approve recommendations that would be forwarded to City…
Friday, October 12, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
Convention center fate looms as Tourism Commission scrutinizes Visit Austin budgets
The most recent meeting of the city’s still-new Tourism Commission followed what could become a regular dynamic for the group: detailed “in the weeds” parsing of budgets and policies related to Austin’s tourism industry, with the proposed expansion of the…
Tuesday, September 11, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
With hotel tax money in play, Tourism Commission meetings grow heated
The second meeting of the city’s new Tourism Commission saw the group vote down a possible $3 million marketing campaign for local live music, while also dusting off the long-running debate about public safety expenses for the South by Southwest…
Monday, June 18, 2018 by Austin Monitor
Reporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Throwing side eye, catching rides
Side eye, or stink eye?… What exactly is the name given to the withering glances occasionally dished out by City Council Member Ora Houston toward her colleagues on the dais? Council Member Leslie Pool learned directly on Thursday during discussion…
