Reply to DC wants to raise hotel taxes to increase tourism

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]LA has close proximity to many known beaches, high end places that people want to experience, tours of homes if the rich and famous, nearby cities to visit like San Diego or Santa Barbara. Plus great weather.

NYC has the big name, shopping, interesting nightlife and amazing food.

DC has… free museums, that draws a certain type of tourist but not large masses, government buildings- the main draw to DC. Also draws a certain type of tourist but not masses.

If I didn’t live here, I’d visit DC once for a few days, mostly for the government buildings. Once you’ve seen them, you’ve seen them.

I go to NYC multiple times per year and LA once a year and Miami at least once a year. DC is a great city but not on tourism par with other big cities.

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Exactly. Maybe you visit DC once for just a long weekend, perhaps around the 4th of July, when your kids are 10 or something like that. If they make it as expensive as LA or New York then I’m not sure of the value. The actual cool stuff that forms great memories, like the elevator to the top of of the Washington Monument or a White House tour are now so difficult that they are basically impossible to do. You can see a space shuttle in LA. You can see much better art in both LA and New York. You can see a better natural history museum in New York. The only unique DC things generally open to the public are the Capitol Building, Library of Congress and Arlington Cemetery and the only essential visit out of those three is the cemetery and it’s not even in DC proper. What’s the unique value proposition again?[/quote]

DP.  You are acting like DC has never had a tourism industry before and is trying to build one from scratch.  DC has had a thriving tourism industry in the past that it now needs to re-vitalize post-covid.  Many cities are facing this. [/quote]
What you don’t seem to understand is that other cities have vibrant tourism industries too. DC should not be comparing itself to NYC, LA or Miami like they are peers. They definitely are not. DC is a different value proposition and the price increases as a result of this tax [b]will end up hurting tourism in the end.[/b] [/quote]

Eh, not really. People will still come here to see the monuments, do the museums, etc. You can't replicate that at the beach.
Companies will still send brigades of executives here because this is where budgets are decided and policy gets made. Law enforcement and military travel here all the time for work purposes.

The federal government itself spends a lot on DC hotels. [/quote]

They'd still come here for the first visit, but they aren't likely to return if the value isn't there.  There are cities that are vacation destinations and where people return to visit again and again, DC isn't a vacation destination, more of an exploratory once-in-a-lifetime trip for many, or likely a business/conference/school related visit.  Even NYC doesn't get a lot of repeated visitors unless they are loaded and enjoy certain amenities only NYC can offer.  Miami and some parts of LA get repeated visitors because of the weather and the beach, not because of the city itself or its cultural amenities, duh. [/quote]

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