Most of the money gained from the recent hotel/motel tax increase will go toward retaining a pair of annual events, rather than attracting new ones to Nashville.
The Metro Council approved the additional $.50 tax in August, on the basis that the revenue would be spent on ways to draw more tourists to the city.
The Committee set up to distribute those funds voted last week to allocate the bulk of those 1.9 million dollars toward the CMA Music Festival and the Music City Bowl. The two events will receive 750,000 apiece.
Tennessee Hotel and Lodging Association CEO Walt Baker says the committee had to focus on retaining those two events for now, while looking to bring others in the future.
“Because this is the first shot out of the barrel for the Music City Event Marketing Fund, they’ll take the majority of the initial collections until we can start building up some funds in this account to incubate and help fund and support other ideas. So it’s more of a matter of timing than anything else.”
Baker says despite being downtown, events like the Music City Bowl and CMA Festival increase lodging at hotels and motels throughout the county.
Smaller hotels outside the city’s core had criticized the tax for driving their rates up while mostly benefiting the downtown area.
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