Lake Area looking to up lodging tax on 2017 ballot

Last week, Tri-County Lodging Association (TCLA) board members voted to place a question on the Tuesday, April 4, 2017, municipal election ballots seeking voter approval for a $3 increase in Camden County’s lodging tax.

The question will be placed on ballots in Camden County and would affect the nightly rate charged by lodging facilities in that county only. The question will not be placed on ballots in either Miller or Morgan County.

TCLA Administrator Jim Divincen said a yes vote on the ballot question would not increase the amount of taxes local residents pay but only the amount of tax charged on bills paid by guests who stay at lodging facilities, such as hotels and motels in Camden County.

The Lake Area’s lodging tax was voted into being in 1992 and TCLA went into effect in 1993. TCLA collected over $1 million tax revenue that first year and began using the money to market the Lake Area on January 1, 1994. In 2015 the amount of revenue the organization collected through the lodging tax totaled only $1.8 million.

Divincen said if voters approve the increase during the April election, the increase would go into effect before mid-July 2017.

Divincen said the reason the TCLA board chose this time to ask for a lodging tax increase in Camden County is because of the opportunity it has to reach as many as 94 percent of all adults, over 35 years of age, in its target markets.

Those target markets are in six geographic areas of the Midwest including St. Louis; Kansas City; Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha, Nebraska; and Quincy, Peoria, Champaign and other towns in southern Illinois.

Divincen also said if voters approve the increase, the approximately $1 million in annual revenue it will garner would be used to advertise on television stations within those market areas.

He said that marketing campaign would focus at least a portion of the time on the fact the Lake of the Ozarks last year was voted the No. 1 Recreational Lake in the nation by readers of USA Today and 10 Best.

“We need to share this recognition with as many potential visitors as possible. Our research surveyed more than 1,200 frequent travelers in our major markets, and only 16 percent of them were aware of the Best Recreational Lake in the Nation honor,” Divincen said. That survey also indicated that after learning of the Best Recreational Lake recognition, 55 percent of those 1,200 respondents said they were more likely to visit the Lake because of it.”

Divincen added the advertising campaign would also “highlight the on-water activities, boating amenities, scenic beauty, outdoor recreation, golf facilities, shopping and overall relaxing time vacationers enjoy here at the Lake.”

He said an increase in Camden County’s lodging tax could have a direct effect on the Lake Area business community as a whole.

“TCLA spends $12,400 each year conducting an advertising effectiveness study to measure the effectiveness of the lodging tax ad dollars being spent,” he said. “According to the most recent (2015) research conducted by H2R Research, (the company that does the marketing research for TCLA) our return on investment this past year was $198 in new incremental tourism revenue for every one dollar TCLA spent on advertising.

“This return-on-investment advertising figure has been almost twice as high as any other destination in the state,” Divincen added. “If we use just one-third of the actual Fiscal Year 2015 researched return-on-investment figure, we could potentially see new, incremental tourism spending at the Lake of the Ozarks in the $65 million dollar range.”