The Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau isn’t giving up its campaign to impose a new 1 percent assessment on hotel guests in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, despite the fact that the tax died in a committee of the city council last week.
The tax would add 1 percent to the existing 5 percent tax on hotel room stays in seven hotels in Springfield which includes the just opened 252-room MGM Springfield casino hotel. The money raised would be earmarked for boosting tourism in the Greater Springfield area.
The opening of the MGM Springfield is generally believed to have bolstered the business of all of the area hotels.
The bureau estimates the tax would raise at least $250,000 annually.
The Bureau is also supporting a similar tax being proposed in the legislature. This proposal failed this year but will be introduced again in 2019. That legislation would allow cities to impose the tax only if a tourism destination marketing district is created.
