DOR: Hotel tax collections increased 3.4% in Jan.

YEAR OVER YEAR, Rhode Island collections for the 5 percent hotel tax increased by about 3.4 percent this past January, according to data released Thursday by the R.I. Department of Revenue. / COURTESY R.I. DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
YEAR OVER YEAR, Rhode Island collections for the 5 percent hotel tax increased by about 3.4 percent this past January, according to data released Thursday by the R.I. Department of Revenue. / COURTESY R.I. DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

PROVIDENCE – Year over year, Rhode Island collections for the 5 percent hotel tax increased by about 3.4 percent this past January, according to data released Thursday by the R.I. Department of Revenue.
Hotel tax collections totaled $714,448 in January, up 3.4 percent or $23,753, compared with the $690,695 collected in January of 2014.
That figure is less than the 9.3 percent increase recorded in December of 2014, said Revenue Director Rosemary Booth Gallogly.
“January 2015’s results are weaker owing, we think, in part to the impact of Winter Storm Juno on the state at the end of January this year,” she said. “This marks the third straight month in which the year-over-year rate of growth declined from the prior month’s … rate of growth.”
On the other hand, the fiscal year to date total for 2015 is $11.2 million, about 7.8 percent or $814,391 higher than the total of $10.4 million during the same time period in 2014, she said.
The fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30.
The 5-percent hotel tax is collected by the R.I. Division of Taxation and then disbursed using a formula to state general revenues, local municipalities, eight regional tourism bureaus, the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority and the Providence Warwick Convention Visitors Bureau.
“Despite the inclement weather, Providence was able to hold its own in January, due to consistent sporting and convention business like the JW Kennedy Memorial Hockey Tournament, which brought in about 3,500 hockey players and their families to Rhode Island,” Martha Sheridan, Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau president & CEO, said.

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