Thursday, May 10, 2007 | I am very concerned about the mayor’s attitude (and many councilmembers) toward the TMD. This is not like any other BIA, as the mayor contends.
First, the hoteliers won’t be paying this tax, the visitors to our city will. Now perhaps we can argue that the consumer eventually pays for everything, but when a tourist receives his bill and finds that “levy” on there, will he come back? Perhaps he will instead decide to stay next time at the new Gaylord facility in Chula Vista. I seem to remember the tourism industry arguing that point when we were voting on the TOT raise. As convenient as it is to the mayor and the hoteliers to have us believe the TMD is just another happy BIA, it is not.
As a citizen of San Diego, I would like to have some say as to the image of the city that is going to be promoted. What if the city spends its money promoting a family-friendly destination, but the hoteliers don’t find that to be profitable enough for them? So they begin a marketing campaign that promotes San Diego as a wild party town? We will have no say, or oversight as to what demographic group the marketing will focus on.
It is wrong to give the image and pride of our city over to a group whose sole purpose is profit.