Oct. 20–The number of hotel room nights booked in Owensboro for conventions and special events has dropped in each of the past two years.
And since the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau depends on the 3 percent tax on the rental of hotel rooms for funding, President Mark Calitri is determined to reverse the trend.
Information that he presented to his board this week shows that 7,406 room nights were booked in 2015-16.
That dropped to 6,999 in 2016-17.
And it dropped again to 4,380 in the year that ended on June 30.
The fiscal year that began July 1 is expected to draw 7,310 room nights — getting back almost to where things were three years before.
But Calitri has set a goal of at least 11,000 room nights from conventions and special events each year.
The CVB's revenues dropped to $64,217 in September from $78,137 a year earlier.
And for the first three months of the current year, they dropped from $217,200 to $200,395.
The tax money reaches the CVB two months after it is collected.
So September receipts were actually from July.
And two water main breaks near Owensboro Municipal Utilities' water plant cut off all water in the city for one day and put a boil water advisory in effect for a couple more days.
That hurt hotels, Matthew McCloud, general manager of the Hampton Inn & Suites downtown and a CVB board member, told the board.
He said the Kentucky Division of Water had a convention in town when the water mains broke and they left.
Kyle Aud, CVB chairman, said the water main break wasn't the only reason room nights were down in July, "but it was a pretty big part of it."
Calitri said the CVB staff will be working more closely with the convention center staff to bring up the number of conventions and special events that fill hotel rooms.
Two new hotels are opening this year and construction on a new downtown hotel is set to begin in 2019.
Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com
