Editor

Osceola County’s tourist tax revenue increased 4.5 percent in March but the jump has not dispelled worries over the future, especially with the possibility of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico coming ashore in Florida, dampening overall tourism.

The Osceola County Tourist Development Council met Tuesday to look at the current tourist tax revenue picture, to entertain two pitches for shuttle service along West U.S. Highway 192 and to hear concerns from tourism industry interests about proposed lodging tax spending that might not result in additional overnight stays.

Tom Lang, executive director of the Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau, said tourist tax revenue went up for March but was still down 6.7 percent for the first half of the 2009-10 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.

“The increase is good news; we can smile about that,” Lang said. “We still have three slow months to get through before the end of the year.”

Lang also said hotel/motel operators are cutting daily room rates to stay competitive and as a way to increase the occupancy rate.

According to the latest report from the Osceola County Tax Collector, the average daily room rate in March was down 1.1 percent – at $77.17 this year versus $77.99 last year. On the positive side, the hotel/ motel occupancy rate for the month was up 1.9 percent, at 63.9 percent this year versus 62.7 percent last year.

Lang said one tourist tax fund, into which 67 percent of tax revenue flows, would see deficit spending of more than $2.5 million, forcing the use of reserves in that fund. He said revenue has been trending lower since 2008.

U.S. Highway 192 shuttles

The council heard two proposals for shuttle service on West U.S. Highway 192, one from Rob Molnar, vice president of business development for Kissimmee-based Maingate Transportation, and the other from Mark Brisson, marketing director for Fun Spot, which has an action park off West U.S. Highway 192.

According to Molnar, Maingate Transportation would provide shuttle service in two phases. Initially, the service would run between State Roads 535 and 429 at 20-minute intervals, from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from 8 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

The second phase of the project, if the first phase proved successful, would have shuttles running between State Road 535 and Osceola Square Mall. Having the service go into Celebration also might be included.

Molnar did not specify how much tourist tax funding would be needed. However, he said various interests involved would form a “partnership.”

That partnership, he said, would involve selling advertising on both the exterior and interior of the shuttle buses, producing maps for the area on which ads would be sold and obtaining financial support from hotels and resorts benefiting from the service.

“Highway 192 is not pedestrian-friendly due to the distances involved – it’s too spread out. People are renting cars instead of using transit,” Molnar said, adding that there is a need to connect restaurants, dinner shows and shops in the tourist corridor. “We are prepared to be the resource to get this done.”

Molnar said he would have to “sit down’ with county officials to determine what funding would be needed, adding that tourists having access to a shuttle service would mean more of them would stay overnight in Osceola County. Fares, he said, would be as low as possible and that resorts and hotels could provide tokens for their guests to use the shuttle.

Molnar pointed to a trolley his company operates successfully on International Drive as a model for a service on U.S. Highway 192.

Brisson’s pitch involved Fun Spot being under contract to provide two 14-passenger shuttles running from 8 a.m. to midnight year-round on a five-mile, 60-minute loop between Interstate 4 and State Road 535.

These shuttles, Brisson said, would carry 400 passengers a day at no charge. The subsidy needed, he said, would be $300,000 for 12 months of initial operation.

“We could get a shuttle started in two weeks,” Brisson said. “A free shuttle could help hotels book more rooms.”

State statute does not allow tourist development tax money to be used for “transportation,” Brisson said, so the company needed a “loophole.” That loophole, he said, which still must be deemed legal by the county attorney, would be turning the shuttles into “mobile museums,” with one of the vehicles featuring displays about the history of cattle ranching, the other about the history of citrus growing.

The stumbling block for this proposal, county officials said, is that a museum, to be eligible for tourist taxes, must have a curator and must be publicly owned.

Questions raised by the council about the two proposals included: How would the proposed service mesh with the current Lynx service; could the service be expanded to go to the theme parks and the Orlando International Airport; why is this service needed when many resorts and hotels already provide free shuttle service to the theme parks; and would having a shuttle service traveling only on U.S. Highway 192 really increase tourism, since the destinations of most Osceola County visitors are the theme parks and outdoor shopping malls.

“We see a need for transportation to Orlando International Airport; that is what we could use,” George Chen, a new member of the council, said, adding that there also should be a way to entice tourists to pay for shuttle service.

The council will hold a workshop sometime next month to further discuss the proposals as well as a number of other requests for funding.

Public comment

In the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting, Randy Johnson, speaking on behalf of the business group Celebration Alliance, urged the council to be mindful of challenging times ahead for tourism in Florida as the number of “well-intended” requests for funding grows.

“We just want to come and say that tourist tax money is seed money, that its spending should be tied to producing additional tourist tax revenue,” he said, adding that the oil spill when it comes ashore in Florida will precipitate a crisis in the tourism industry.

Johnson, a former state representative, said the county should spend tourist tax money on advertising and that “rules are not to be gotten around.” He also said the Celebration Alliance would “stand up and defend against” the use of tourist taxes by special interest groups.

Randy Dillard, who spoke in support of using tourist taxes to develop a new Veterans Tribute and Museum at the former Coggin car dealership on West U.S. Highway 192, also said any funded projects must generate revenue for lodging businesses, something the museum project would do.

“If we don’t prioritize projects in terms of what will produce revenue, it will threaten the (Kissimmee) Convention and Visitors Bureau. If all projects on the list are allowed to go through, you would have to use the operations budget of the bureau to fund them,” Dillard said. “Do this workshop, get your priorities in place, and then convince the County Commission which investments to make.”

Visitors bureau update

In his update to the council, Lang reported the following:

• That the council at its next meeting needs to decide whether having a contract with a professional fisherman to promote the county as a fishing destination is worth the money.

• That the bureau and other county officials are working on a master plan for Osceola Heritage Park, with the plan due in less than 60 days.

• And that Osceola Heritage Park during the upcoming Christmas holiday season will host a holiday festival involving a large lighting display, a holiday village and an ice skating rink, for which visitors would pay a fee to attend.

Other news

Veterans on June 4 are tentatively scheduled to make a presentation to county staff on their proposal for the new Veterans Tribute and Museum of Military History. That presentation will involve the latest business plan and feasibility study for the museum, a discussion of who would pay to correct certain environmental issues at the Coggin dealership site on West U.S. Highway 192 and what that cost might be, and discussion of a request for a 30-day extension on the contract for the county to buy the property to work out the environmental issues.