 Greetings
everyone,
Election Day is tomorrow! We here at the
Tourism
Development Alliance of Georgia encourage each one of
you to participate in the election process by remembering to
vote on Tuesday, November 7, as voting is a civic duty we
all share.
For those of you who are feeling unsure about which
candidate to choose, there is a helpful voter's guide at
ajc.com that you can visit by clicking
here.
Please click
here to visit the Georgia Secretary of State's web site
to determine your exact voting precinct. Polls are open
Election Day from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Please vote and also encourage others to do so!
In this newsletter you will find new
TDAG members,
legislative updates and information regarding upcoming
hearings, upcoming
tourism events across the state and
tourism headlines from
all over Georgia. Please take time to peruse the information
in the right column.
Now, on to some news about the latest tourism incentives. In our constant search for
new and innovative tourism tools for Georgia, we studied the
Kentucky Model at the Governor's Conference on Tourism held
in Columbus. This ground-breaking legislation, the Kentucky
Tourism Development Act (KTDA), passed in 1996, and since it
inception the state of Kentucky has seen a major increase in
the economic impact of tourism. The act, the first of its
kind in the country, provides a state sales tax incentive
program for tourism development projects.
The plan includes an incentive for developers of approved
new or expansion tourism projects. They have the ability to
recover up to 25 percent of their project's development
costs over a ten year term. Projects including, but not
limited to, lodging facilities that are constructed on state
park, federal park and national forest lands are eligible to
recover up to 50 percent of development costs over a 20 year
term. An expanding attraction receives the incentive on
increased sales tax due to the expansion. The developers of
approved projects annually receive back the state sales tax
paid by visitors to the attraction on admission tickets,
food and gift sales and lodging costs.
The act defines eligible tourism attractions as: cultural or
historical sites; recreation or entertainment facilities;
areas of scenic beauty or distinctive natural phenomena;
entertainment destination centers; Kentucky crafts and
products centers; theme restaurant destinations; and lodging
with certain stipulations.
Projects that do not qualify are strictly retail businesses
and recreational facilities that are not a likely
destination for out-of-state travelers.
Eligible facilities go through an application process
that is filtered through the Secretary of the Commerce
Cabinet and the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance
Authority.
After preliminary approval, the Cabinet does an in-depth
study of the proposed project at the expense of the
developer. A public hearing on each project is then required
between preliminary and final approval.
Based on the consultant's study, related materials and the
report from the public hearing, the Secretary will determine
whether to request final approval by the Authority. Upon
final approval by the Authority, an agreement will be signed
between the state and the project developers allowing the
developer to recover the state sales tax during the term of
the agreement.
The KTDA ensures that approved developers will have a
significant economic impact for the state and for a project
to be eligible, it must receive approval from the state
before construction begins on the project.
Here in Georgia, we work hard to continue creating and
expanding state tourism incentive programs. The KTDA is a
great program and we hope to use some of its ideas to create
similar programs in our state. Tourism is
Georgia's second largest industry next to agriculture, and
we are committed to finding new ways to charge up our
state's economic engine.
TDAG wants to continue updating you on all the great
tourism news that is happening in Georgia. As always, we welcome your input and your ideas. Please let us know if you have
any
questions. Thanks for your commitment to Georgia and for
your support of the Tourism Alliance.
Best Regards,
Joy Spears Walstrum
Tourism
Development Alliance of Georgia
404-223-2471 (w)
404-358-5634 (m)
404-223-2290 (fax)
joy@tourismdevelopmentalliance.org |
