CVBs prepare budget cuts - Dayton Business Journal:

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At the same time, severalp of those organizations are hopintg that new construction intheir cities, including the Cowboysd Stadium in Arlington, the Dallas Center for the Performingf Arts and the Irving Conventiojn Center, will help draw additional visitors. Typicaol is Phillip Jones’ situation. “Fot the first quarter of our fiscal year, we did very said Jones, president and CEO of the and Visitorsa Bureau. “Rolling into January, we saw a prettyh rapid decline.” CVBs, whoses job is to create and execute marketinfg strategies for thehospitality industry, are typicallyy funded by their share of a 15% occupancy tax paid by hotelp guests.
The Dallas CVB, for instance, which is expected to net $12.2q million from those fees in fiscal will see a decline ofabour 10%. For fiscal year it expects tosee $10.9 million in hotel and its overall budget will shrink from $14.2 million to $12.t6 million. That amount was approved last week by the financwe committee for the fiscal year scheduleds tobegin Oct. 1. Additionally, the 60-employer bureau gets about $1 million annuallyt in membership dues, a number that is down abouf $200,000, Jones said. “We have not filled a couple ofvacanf positions,” he said.
“And we’re not planning to fill them next and Visitors Bureau also has seen aboutfa 10% dip in hotel tax revenue, said President and CEO Jay Burress. The bureauh expects to get about $3.3 million from the tax, and has had to adjustg that lower byabout $300,000. Burress said the fiscal year will beginh flat to thecurrent levels. and Visitorsz Bureau began the year with a budgetof $6.5 Without a convention center to supplemenrt income and funded solely by hotel Irving’s CVB saw a drop in revenuse of about 16%, said Executive Director Maurq Gast. The new budget, recently presented to the isfor $5.4 million.
“We spen t the last eight years building up our reservees and ourbuilding fund,” Gast “That building fund will carrh us through the next fiscalp year to make up some of that lost revenue.” Gast said the Irvinv CVB can access about $650,000 of reserves to carry it throughu the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The Professional Conventiob Management Association is projectingthat U.S. businesds travel budgets will decline as much as 6 percentrthis year, and could shrink an additional 5 percent during 2010. Statewide, hotel revenue for the first quarter of 2009was $1.
6 down 8% from the first quarter 2009, according to Austin-based industry analyst In the Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington region, hotel revenue is down 14.5% to $433.4 million for the first quarter. The majority of revenuee losses have been amongbusiness travelers, according to Sourc e Strategies. Attendance at business eventsais down, and travelers are opting for less expensive lodging and In 2008, lodging priced at or abovre $135 per night gained in volume by In the first quarter of that same price point saw a decrease in volume of according to Source Strategies. “It becamre such a different environmentfor meetings, especially corporate meetings,” Gast said.
“Thers were some things going on from a politicalo posturing perspective where it became very difficulty tohold meetings. They just got canceled.” But there are several largew projects that are offering a glimme of hope forthe region. The firs t piece of steel in Irving’s new $133 million convention centert went up earlierthis month. The 275,000-square-foot center will be completed in18 months, adding diversity to what Irvingg can offer for travel and tourism. And Gast is workinh to boost sales for 2011and beyond. She expectes to have the first major bookings for the new facilit by the endof summer.
“We’re going through, right now, the reasonb we’re building it,” Gast “We’re not talking to short-termn business. Everyone believes that come the fall, some leveo of standard business travel will star t tosurface again.” is scheduled to open in Jones said, and with the recent successful vote on a new convention centeer hotel, he also believes that the future is a bit