MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis city council members want to know why one of downtown's biggest hotels is suddenly charging an extra 5% surcharge on everything.
The tax will include everything purchased at the Sheraton downtown from a gin and tonic you order at the bar to every night you stay in a hotel room.
The Grand Hyatt was intended to be the centerpiece of the One Beale Project downtown.
With the project paused for the foreseeable future, the onus falls on making sure the downtown Memphis Sheraton is renovated, making it a go-to for meetings at the nearby Renasant Convention Center.
Officials working to ensure renovations will actually occur for the tentative 300-room expansion, 5% tourism tax is being implemented in order to continue to finance the project.
“It means jobs, it means economic development for our community," Paul Young, the president & CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission, said.
According to the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, tourism in Shelby County brought in about $166 million in tax revenue in 2021 and as it stands now lodging makes up 16% of all visitor spending.
“Tourism employs over fifty thousand jobs in this community," Kevin Kane, the president of Memphis Tourism, said.
As tax revenue increases from tourist activity in Shelby County, each household will pay about $700 hundred less in state and local tax, according to the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.
Officials hope this tax will, in the end, strengthen the Memphis economy and shore up a steady stream of visitor income.
“When we have those conferences when we have those events, it creates more economic activity in downtown," Young said. "You have events like what we saw last week with the COGIC convocation being back in downtown where we had hotel occupancies near 100%."