The Rise of the Tourism Business Improvement District
Photo Credit: The Claremont Hotel Club & Spa is a Fairmont Hotels property and a member of Oakland's new Tourism Business Improvement District. Fairmont Hotels
Skift Take
Expect this new funding model for tourism promotion to continue to expand, especially as more travel and hotel executives understand the value for their specific companies.
Over the last decade, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in North America have been developing a new funding model through the creation of Tourism Business Improvement Districts (TBIDs), based on self-assessed hotel fees collected beyond the typical Transient Occupant Tax (TOT), or hotel bed tax.
With traditional hotel bed taxes, they're usually collected by city councils or county/state governments who decide how to invest those funds following annual budget reviews. In contrast, TBIDs ensure that the member hotels have complete control over the management of the collected funds, which in this case are typically dispersed by the DMOs.
Depending on the destination, TBIDs are also called Tourism or Business Improvement Districts (TID/BIDs) or Tourism Marketing Districts (TMDs).
In order for a destination to develop a TBID, the bureau and hotels first have to advocate for legislation allowing the formation of the funding structure. Then the majority of the hotels withi
