Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Destination Cleveland says bed tax and convention-center bookings fueled tourism rebound; reports $20.5M budget and $350M in 2023 tax revenue
Summary
At a Cuyahoga County Committee of the Whole meeting April 22, David Gilbert, president and CEO of Destination Cleveland, reported a roughly $20.5 million bed-tax-funded budget, cited $350 million in 2023 direct county tax revenue from visitors, and outlined marketing and neighborhood strategies to convert visits into longer-term economic benefits.
David Gilbert, president and chief executive of Destination Cleveland, told the Cuyahoga County Committee of the Whole on April 22 that the organization’s bed-tax-funded operations generated measurable economic returns for the county and that marketing and neighborhood programming are central to future growth.
Gilbert said Destination Cleveland’s budget from the county-collected bed tax is about $20,500,000 for the current year and that, using 2023 data, visitor activity generated roughly $350,000,000 in direct county tax revenue. “This is an economic impact,” Gilbert said. He added that bookings tied to the renovated convention center have already produced approximately $3,100,000 in direct county taxes and that the county’s visitor economy supports about 7% of all jobs in Cuyahoga County.
The presentation, introduced by John Penny,…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
