Tag Archives: Austin Convention Center
City task force weighs new uses for hotel occupancy tax
With more tourists coming to Austin each year, the city’s hotels are generating more and more revenue. Some of that funding is set aside to support Austin’s tourism industry, and as the number of guests and hotels grow, so does…
Austin • By Syeda Hasan • Mar 1, 2017
Seeking $100M, springs supporters target convention center expansion proposal
Fine arts and natural resources advocates are stepping up their involvement with a city task force that will play a large role in shaping how the city allocates the fast-growing pool of revenue from Hotel Occupancy Tax, which totaled about…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Feb 22, 2017
Council hears funding options for new convention center
Faced with concerns that the city is losing revenue because the Austin Convention Center is too small, City Council heard proposals for convention center expansions that ranged from $400 million to $600 million projects at its work session Tuesday. Carla…
City Council • By Kara Nuzback • Feb 8, 2017
Hotel tax increase would fund most aggressive convention center plan
A 2-percentage-point uptick in the city’s hotel occupancy tax appears to be the most favored method of expanding the Austin Convention Center and turning the area around it into a lifestyle and tourist epicenter. That financing option, which would be…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Feb 7, 2017
Hotel business – and HOT revenue – would accelerate with convention center expansion
The biggest number looming over the Visitor Impact Task Force is fairly easy to grasp: The city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax generated more than $90 million in revenue in 2016, with double-digit growth expected well into the future. It’s the many…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Jan 11, 2017
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Visitors bureau budget cut, but still up $1 million
Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo won a round Thursday in her battle to use more of Austin’s tourism dollars to promote Austin’s heritage. City Council cut the tourism promotion budget of the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau by approximately $1…
Budget • By Jo Clifton • Sep 26, 2016
Does Austin need a bigger convention center?
City leaders are considering a plan to expand the Austin Convention Center, but some question how much the entire city would benefit from the project. The convention industry is sort of like an invisible arms race among cities. Who can…
Austin • By Syeda Hasan • Aug 26, 2016
Task force to investigate HOT tax spending
City Council will spend the coming weeks looking into whether Austin’s Hotel Occupancy Tax (or HOT tax) should continue to be used only for tourism, or if there are better uses for the rapidly growing tax revenue. At their meeting…
Budget • By Cate Malek • Aug 22, 2016
Corrected: Homes could thwart convention center project
On Monday, the Historic Landmark Commission heard a proposal that could move three of downtown Austin’s oldest homes to make way for development surrounding its largest hotel. Doug Manchester from the Manchester Texas Financial Group presented his plan to move…
Preservation • By Elizabeth Pagano • Feb 29, 2016
Houston, Casar balk at larger Convention Center
The City Council Economic Opportunity Committee rejected a chance to weigh in on the expansion of the Convention Center Monday, with Council Members Ora Houston and Greg Casar saying they were not ready to recommend the consultant’s long-range master plan.…
City Council • By Jo Clifton • Oct 13, 2015
Plans for expanded Convention Center laid out for Council committee
As design consultants laid out the plans for an expanded Austin Convention Center to members of the Economic Opportunity Committee on Monday, they emphasized the inability of the current center to accommodate a growing city with a growing roster of…
