http://www.pnj.com/article/20111123/NEWS01/111230333/Perdido-gets-bed-tax-pitch-from-Pensacola-area-hotel-owners

http://www.pnj.com/article/20111123/NEWS01/111230333/Perdido-gets-bed-tax-pitch-from-Pensacola-area-hotel-owners

The owners of several major Pensacola area hotels met with Perdido Key residents Tuesday to enlist their help in changing how $4 million in Escambia County's bed tax dollars are spent annually.




The group of hoteliers favor stripping the authority for tourism spending promotion from the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. They have formed a local chapter of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association to promote the change.

Innisfree Hotels CEO Julian MacQueen said the meeting at the Perdido Bay Community Center was "a sincere effort" to extend an olive branch to Perdido Key business leaders who felt snubbed by the hoteliers' determined drive to overhaul tourism marketing.

MacQueen was joined by Marilyn Hess, whose properties include the Crowne Plaza and Margaritaville Beach Hotel, Highpointe Hotel co-founder Dave Cleveland, Robert Rinke, a partner in Levin and Rinke Resort Realty, Pensacola Beach Realtor Noel Faddis and Tosh Belsinger of Gulf Blue Vacations.

"This is not a new cause, and it's not a secret cause," MacQueen said about the hoteliers' plans. "It's a cause we've been fighting for for 15 or 20 years. It was never our intention to eliminate or offend Perdido Key."

Of those attending the meeting, many expressed their frustration with the current structure of tourism marketing, and their concern that Perdido Key will have proportional representation on any new agency spending bed tax dollars.

"I promise you the current (tourism marketing) program doesn't work, and it doesn't work for anyone in this room," said Greg Jones, a member of the Tourism Development Council, and a branch sales manager for WCI, a major developer on the island. "I don't know yet what the right program is, but today's program is not the right one."

Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce Chairwoman Alison Davenport stressed the need for the key to be fully represented on any new governing agency.

Cleveland told the audience the group is focused solely on "putting heads in beds" throughout all of Escambia County, and not just on Pensacola Beach.

MacQueen said the overall goal of the group is to create a "single brand and a single message" for Escambia County's tourism marketing efforts.

"I was happy with the way the meeting went today," MacQueen said.