Tall ships gala gets $1m, but may not fill hotel rooms
Downsized event apt to cut tax take
By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff | June 19, 2009
As the convention center board approved $1 million for a tall ships spectacle yesterday, other tourism officials raised doubts about whether a downsized Sail Boston could pay for itself in hotel taxes. Visitors are in no rush to book hotel rooms for the event, whose plans had been up in the air for months.
“No, I don’t think it will generate a million-plus dollars in hotel tax revenue from those five days,’’ said Patrick B. Moscaritolo, chief executive of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, who is also chairman of Sail Boston 2009. However, he hopes Sail Boston will attract day-trippers who spend money in Boston and boost collections of sales and meals taxes and thus raise Boston’s profile as a maritime destination.
“I think over a period of time, the return on that investment, within the year, you would get your money back,’’ he said.
The fate of the nautical pageant had been in question since March, when Mayor Thomas M. Menino said organizers would have to pay all public costs of the event, scheduled for July 8 to 13. Menino said he learned his lesson in 2000, the last time the ships came to Boston, when the city’s estimated $1.6 million in costs were never reimbursed by the state.
Until last week, it was uncertain whether spectators would get to see the tall ships, including those from Russia and Argentina, and tourism officials were fretting about how the city would look internationally if the public were barred from seeing a trans-Atlantic regatta docked in Boston Harbor.
Government tourism officials in Bermuda, which hosted the tall ships last week, had considered running a Boston ad campaign that would have asked locals to “ditch the drama’’ and view the tall ships from the pink sands of Bermuda. (They decided against it, because they did not want to be seen as taking advantage of an unpleasant situation in Boston, home to many of the island’s visitors.)
“This was going to be an embarrassment, and my mindset right now is all around image and brand,’’ said the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority’s executive director, James Rooney. “Within the world that I operate in right now, we’d be the butt of jokes.’’
Sail Boston organizers have tried to work around the mayor for weeks, seeking state funding. But with government revenues nose-diving, politicians were loath to dedicate scarce public dollars to sailing vessels.
Rooney then raised the prospect of tapping a fund used to market and maintain the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston.
Most of the money in the fund comes from taxes on hotel rooms in Cambridge and Boston. The event will ultimately pay for itself by protecting Boston’s brand, even if it doesn’t return the investment immediately in tax revenue, Rooney said.
Governor Deval Patrick, who spoke with the mayor about the deal at Saturday’s gay pride parade, told reporters Wednesday that it was a “justifiable expense, I think, for the Convention Center to make, based on the uptick for local businesses and services, and people like it.’’
The event will still be free for spectators. Dot Joyce, Menino’s spokeswoman, said the mayor did not want visitors to have to pay to board ships, as organizers had proposed as a way of raising money to reimburse the city.
But organizers still had to cancel a parade of ships and two fireworks spectacles, the events that would be expected to draw the largest crowds. Some have voiced diminished enthusiasm for a downsized event.
“Why even have it? Why have tall ships come in at all? They should just cancel the whole thing,’’ said Councilor Sal LaMattina.
Sail Boston organizers are trying to estimate the economic impact of the downsized event. The Omni Parker House’s director of sales and marketing, David Ritchie, said his bookings are up for the week, but others are disappointed.
“The uncertainty of the whole affair has caused people to delay making their plans,’’ said Doug Soares, marketing director for Marriott hotels in Boston.
Bob Lawler, general manager of Entertainment Cruises, said he had to refund hundreds of $150 tickets he had sold to all-day harbor cruises for the Parade of Sail. Now, he’s selling $56 to $86 tickets for shorter lunch and dinner cruises.
“In this tough economy, it is better late than never,’’ he said. “I just wish we could have had the Parade of Sail and wish we could have the full-scale event, like we had in 2000 and 1992. But we’ll make lemonade out of it.’’
Moscaritolo said he was lowering his expectations even before organizers canceled the Parade of Sail, due to the recession, which has squeezed consumers and dampened tourists’ ambitions.
“People need to understand that this is not your father’s Sail Boston,’’ he said. “This is going to be a much more local event. Rather than people coming from Salem, Ore., they’re going to come from Salem, Mass.’’
Michael Levenson and Matt Viser of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at ebbert@globe.com.
© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
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