Local businesses in San Benito County are weighing in on tourism, hotel incentive program
SAN BENITO COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) County supervisors are discussing a potential tax rebate program. The Transient Occupancy Tax on hotels in the area is expected to incentivize the development of new infrastructure and promote renovations on existing hotels.
“There are more hotels on this side. I think that they should add hotels to the other side of town. I mean, I know Ridgemark has a few places where you could stay, but most hotels are on this side of the town.” Jennifer McBain, a bartender at downtown's Johnny's Bar and Grill, says a boost in tourism would mean positive things for local businesses.
“I mean, more hotels and more people, more traffic, congestion, but definitely more people. We like tourism,” she adds.
County reports say they currently lack the necessary infrastructure to welcome the nearly 7 million potential visitors who live an hour's drive away. The program would generate $475 thousand annually in tax revenue.
“There are a lot fewer tourists coming through,” says Danny DeLuna, chef at Danny’s Smoke and Grill. “There are obviously the locals that come through; it's primarily the locals. When we get people from out of town, it is because we have big events like the 4th of July, which really is a benefit to downtown businesses, whether it's here or any other business,” he adds. “It's a great weekend to make a lot of money.”
Danny says he has seen fewer tourists since the pandemic, yet recent festivals and events have brought people back to Hollister. “As of right now, we don't have too many things that are inviting people back and giving them a really good reason to come and hang out here.”
DeLuna knows that with further investment in the hotel industry, businesses along the downtown area will also see an economic boost, yet he remains skeptical, saying more should be done to help local restaurants along the downtown corridor.
“We're doing good things here, and we definitely invite people to come down here to try this stuff because there are new places popping up every little while,” he adds. “There are new places everywhere. Come spend your money at them because this is how we survive.
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors is set to discuss the recommendations from the Tourism Advisory Committee at Tuesday's meeting.
San Benito County committee updates incentive program proposal for hospitality development
HOLLISTER, Calif. (KION) -- San Benito County's Tourism Advisory Committee has new additions in their discussion surrounding their proposed hotel incentive program.
The latest version of the proposal acknowledged smaller hotels that might come this way and hotels that already exist in the area — giving those existing developers a better chance to compete with incoming businesses.
"As we're trying to drive interest in new development, we don't want to accidentally disadvantage any constituencies that already live and operate here in San Benito County." Christian Pillsbury, a Tourism Advisory Committee member, said.
The proposal from the start has been all about increasing tourism in San Benito County as much as possible and getting people not just to come to the national park around the corner but to stay overnight and support local businesses.
The proposed program would incentivize hotel developers to come build in the area by giving a portion of their transient occupancy tax, a common hotel tax, back.
Today was about existing developments taking advantage of their some of their own TOT money to make upgrades, to be able to viably compete with incoming developments.
"We wanted to make sure that we didn't accidentally carve those folks out," Pillsbury said.
The funding for this program comes from within itself. The county would only be giving back portions of the money that the hotels generate from their tax pool; meaning ideally zero county funds would be used to sponsor this program.
The committee approved this proposal to move forward and be seen by the San Benito County of Supervisors.
