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Tag Archives: Tourism Commission
Convention center's closure for expansion could trigger bond default
The city may not move forward with the next steps in the Austin Convention Center expansion until an agreement is reached with current holders to rework some terms of roughly $163 million in hotel bonds. A memo discussed at Monday’s…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Feb 16, 2022
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…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • May 13, 2021
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…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Apr 21, 2021
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…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Jan 13, 2021
Featured Collection: Sixth Street
Stream reveals details of six possible new Sixth Street music venues
Stream Realty Partners is eyeing the possibility of turning at least six of its properties on East Sixth Street into music venues, including a plan to convert the former Buffalo Billiards space into a daytime food hall with music in the evenings.…
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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…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Aug 20, 2020
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…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Jun 15, 2020
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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…
Planning • By Chad Swiatecki • Dec 18, 2019
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…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Aug 14, 2019
Austin Police Department Budget, 2012-2022
During the 2020-21 budget process, City Council cut $31.5 million from APD’s budget, citing the protests and “community outcry against the disproportionate impact of police violence on Black Americans, Latinx Americans and other non-white ethnic communities,” according to the approved…
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…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • May 20, 2019
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…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Apr 22, 2019
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…
Reporters' Notebook • By Elizabeth Pagano • Mar 25, 2019
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…
