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Durango lodgers are getting organized

Group may back tax increase
As more hotels open in town, hotel owners and managers in town are discussing pushing for an increase the lodgers tax.

Hotel owners and managers are organizing to bring in more tourists.

With four new hotels possibly opening in town, the Durango area lodgers see more marketing as a key to ensure business keeps thriving, and increasing lodgers tax would be one way to pay for more advertising, said Michelle Thom, who is organizing the group.

“We want to work to fill all of the hotels and restaurants and rafting companies,” she said.

Right now, there is a special 2 percent tax on hotel rooms that is paid by visitors, and the funds are mostly set aside to pay for marketing efforts to bring in more tourists.

This tax was put in place about 35 years ago at the request of the lodgers, said Bob Kunkel, executive director of the Durango Area Tourism Office.

The current average lodgers tax is 6.5 percent, so there may be room for an increase if the lodgers support one, he said.

Kunkel’s office, charged with marketing Durango as a destination, is funded by this tax.

Local lodgers have met three times, and Thom wants to make sure that the group can speak with one voice on a potential lodgers-tax increase and other relevant issues.

“We want to work with the city and with constituents instead of working separately,” she said.

But the group has not established its platform yet.

“I think it’s very much in the discussion stage,” said Peter Marshall, general manager of the DoubleTree Hotel.

The group also may encourage the city to ensure the lodgers tax is slated for marketing. The tax is also used for city transit, as allowed by local law.

Right now, about 35 hotels are operating in town, and a Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites is under construction near the U.S. Highway 550/160 intersection.

The city has also approved a Downtown Durango Hotel on Second Avenue.

Two more hotels, a La Quinta Inn and a SpringHill Suites by Marriott, are planned for Mercury Village Drive. Neither one has received its final land-use approvals from the city; although the La Quinta Inn is in the final stages of the process.

As a member of DATO’s board, Thom is convinced more can be done to market the town – especially because the industry is growing locally.

“It felt to me that we could do better, and once we sat down with all the lodgers to give them that education the general consensus has been: Yes, we need to do something,” she said.

The group will likely work together to take positions on state legislative issues.

mshinn@durangoherald.com



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