Myrtle Beach chamber: Penny tax has done well for tourism

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce presented its tourism tax expenditures and results report to city council Tuesday afternoon.

By: Rebekah Carter | SCNOW
Published: October 27, 2009

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce presented its tourism tax expenditures and results report to city council Tuesday afternoon.

The one cent sales tax went into effect in August after city council voted for it in May.

Chamber president Brad Dean said that the money has already helped increase tourist traffic this year.

"Most of the investment was spent to spur summer business and we saw that our occupancy rates rose,” explained Dean, “more tourists came and that's carried over to the fall campaign where we are having some phenomenal numbers compared to our competition.”

The chamber spent $4.6 million in magazine, TV and radio advertising to help lure in tourists.

He said because of that, the chamber over the summer months was flooded with hundreds of thousands of calls from new visitors interested in coming to vacation along the Grand Strand.

He said that kind of spending could net over $3 billon for the area, in potential economic revenue.

“Nobody likes additional taxes and fees, but most of the taxes we pay end up in Columbia not here. The tourism fee stays here 100% with tourism promotion,” said Dean, "the one story that we've been able to get a lot of publicity out so far is the boardwalk, it's been attracting a lot of attention and that's exciting not only for the downtown businesses but for the entire Grand Strand."

Both the chamber and city council members including Mayor John Rhodes said they had to ignore some of the naysayers that challenged the tax.

Rhodes added that he was impressed with how the chamber has come through on its promise of making good on public use of that money so far.

"Give it a chance to work give it a chance to prove to you that with this money we're going to be able to generate more jobs in our community we're going to be able to keep the hotels and the restaurants at a high rate of occupancy," Rhodes said.

Rhodes also said that the tourism tax money will provide 20% of the money towards helping property owners with tax credits.

Originally, that was planned for 2011 but Rhodes said it will now be happening sooner than that next year.

Dean said that the chamber is planning to partner up with three new airlines very soon to try to bring in even more deals to the grand strand.

He said the chamber is planning to spend no less than $10 million on its spring season campaign.