For people of color and immigrants in New York, hotels are a path to the middle class and a source of good wages and benefits. New York hotels are at the heart of our tourism industry, which regularly employs 300,000 New Yorkers – more than the finance industry, and nearly twice as many as the tech sector.
Lowering the tax on tourists will add visitors and jobs while growing our economy.
What’s at stake?
Hotels provide NYC with:
THE PROBLEM:
NYC hotel taxes are the highest among major U.S. cities
Over Taxed
The City adds a whopping 5.875% occupancy tax to each room bill, in addition to other taxes.
Double the Cost
NYC hotels pay double the property tax burden than other major markets, also increasing costs for tourists.
Pushed Out
Unnecessary taxes on tourists make visitors more likely to choose other cities as their destination.
The Solution:
A tax break to unleash
a tourism wave
Lowering the occupancy tax rate 3% would increase hotel stays by thousands of room nights per month, keeping hotels open and increasing employment.
Every dollar we spend reducing those taxes is an investment in bringing hospitality stats back up, which will quickly yield higher tax revenues through increased overall room occupancy and reopened hotels while expanding the industry and creating jobs.