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Irving officials hear how visitor spending and hotel market shifts underpin city finances
Summary
At a Feb. 16 Planning & Zoning work session, the Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau told commissioners visitor spending and hotel-tax revenue support cultural institutions and debt service, while growth of select-service hotels and flag changes pose risks to rates and the city’s debt tied to hotel taxes.
Maura Gast, executive director of the Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau, told the Planning & Zoning Commission on Feb. 16 that visitor spending injects roughly $3.5 billion into Irving annually and that tourism helps keep local property-tax burdens lower — she cited a figure of $757 in annual tax savings per household attributed to visitor-generated revenue.
Gast said the ICVB is funded by a portion of the hotel-occupancy tax and uses roughly one-quarter of those receipts to operate and maintain the Irving Convention Center. She said more than $570 million in hotel-tax revenue has been collected since the tax began; Gast said $131 million went to arts programs (net of convention center debt), $212 million supported operations, about $12 million to historic-preservation efforts, and roughly $215 million to debt service tied to major downtown cultural and…
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