Officials Thursday marked the first North American Meetings Industry Day by highlighting success at the Saratoga Springs City Center.
North American Meetings Industry Day, or NAMID, is an event created by the U.S. Travel Association.
tanding outside the city center, officials from Saratoga Springs, Saratoga County, and those involved in the local hospitality industry gathered to draw attention to the event industry’s impact in the region.
Todd Garafano, president of the Saratoga Convention and Tourism Bureau, said the Spa City, once proverbially the August place to be, is increasingly becoming a year-round destination.
“Just with the Convention and Tourism Bureau, we worked with 326 groups last year, which was a significant increase from the year before. And certainly between the City Center, the hotels that we have here, and the other unique venues, it really makes Saratoga Springs an attractive destination.”
According to numbers outlined by the coalition Meetings Mean Business, the economic impact of local events in Saratoga Springs was up $2 million dollars over last year. Hotel occupancy in the county was up to a record high of 69.2 percent.
In an area long known for its summer attractions, Saratoga County Treasurer Drew Jarosh said occupancy tax revenues are on the increase in the other months.
“Occupancy taxes, which are collected on hotel room stays, used to be highest in the summer when the track is open. Well, what we’ve seen in my research, is it’s the other months that have been coming up faster than the summer months. That’s entirely due to conventions.”
Saratoga County collects a 1 percent occupancy tax on all hotel room rentals in the county. In Saratoga Springs, the city benefits from 3 percent collected on hotel rooms, which is shared with the City Center, and the Convention Bureau collects an additional 2 percent.
City Finance Commissioner Michelle Madigan said sales tax revenues saw record growth of 5.5 percent in 2014 over the year before, and that’s despite a slowdown during August at the height of the thoroughbred meet at Saratoga Race Course.
“So last year, August, was actually lower in sales tax than in 2013 and 2012. If that had happened 20 years ago, that would have been a significant impact for the city. But because 20 years later we have meetings and conventions and all sorts of things going on in the city, when you have an August season that looks a little bit off, it doesn’t matter, because we had record sales tax growth.”
Jeff King is an owner of King Brothers Dairy in Schuylerville and also serves as chair of the NY Holstein Association. Joined by one of his dairy cows, appropriately named “Finance,” King said the City Center’s recent expansion and increase in local hotel beds in the area made it possible to select Saratoga Springs as the location for the 2016 National Holstein Convention, where more than 1,200 attendees will buy and sell cattle on the City Center floor.
“So that was a determining factor. We now have the facilities to host that many people. And that combined with the absolutely tremendous downtown and the experience that people would be able to have, everybody’s really looking forward to it.”
