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Governments seeing money-making hotel industry as tax target.

Article Excerpt
Although travel buyers and hoteliers infrequently see eye-to-eye at the negotiating table, there is one issue they unify against: high hotel taxes levied by state and local governments. Hoteliers describe them as a disincentive and buyers as a disservice, but they are united in seeing such taxes as detrimental to the hotel industry.

Now that the hotel industry has reclaimed its position as robustly profitable and continues an upswing in average daily rates and revenue per available room, governments steadily are imposing higher hotel taxes to finance and support state and local endeavors. What miffs hoteliers is that, in many instances, the money generated from increased taxes is not being funneled back into the industry or used to promote tourism. Instead, it often subsidizes such ventures as new sports arenas, offsets teachers' salaries or even shrinks government debt. "When municipalities are looking for additional revenue, the first thing they do is say, 'Let's...

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