A proposed 2% fee increase on Allegheny County hotel rooms would generate $6.5 million for VisitPittsburgh, roughly doubling its annual take from hotel fees. No doubt, more money would help the organization market and promote the city, boosting hotels and restaurants recovering from COVID-related losses. Added revenue also would help VisitPittsburgh create a special tourism improvement district, a proposal that excites the county’s hotel and restaurant trade groups.
Jumping straight to a fee increase, however, without considering other options, practically guarantees more waste and inefficiency.
VisitPittsburgh is lobbying hard to increase hotel room fees, effectively a tax. But State Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, is, prudently, demanding an audit of the tourism group before the proposal moves forward. Transparency is essential for public trust, and the audit should proceed before hotel fees go up. The audit would put the public in the loop, as the debate over additional funding and more fiscally efficient management continues.
Responsibilities for booking and marketing Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center, long plagued by budget and maintenance problems, are shared by three local organizations: VisitPittsburgh, the Sports & Exhibition Authority, and the global venue management company ASM Global.
It’s hardly a perfect partnership. VisitPittsburgh and the Sports & Exhibition Authority blame each other for the center’s multi-million-dollar deficits. Currently, VisitPittsburgh receives a nearly 30% slice of the 7% hotel tax. Hotel fees amount to more than two-thirds of the organization’s 2021 funding.
Mr. Fontana, who heads the board of the Sports & Exhibition Authority, does not, outright, oppose increasing local hotel fees, even though they are already higher than in many comparable cities. His principal beef is that VisitPittsburgh isn’t contributing enough to convention center maintenance, a burden that he says falls unfairly on the SEA.
To its credit, VisitPittsburgh isn’t balking at the proposed audit. Nor does the organization dispute many of Sen. Fontana’s points. It argues, however, that bringing VisitPittsburgh and its funders under the auspices of the SEA, which Sen. Fontana advocates, could make targeting more dollars for the hospitality industry tougher.
Either way, an audit will help ensure money already budgeted is well-managed. That trumps any need for immediate action to dig deeper into the pockets of this region’s tourists and visitors.
First Published: September 15, 2022, 4:00 a.m.