Louisville Hotels See Occupancy Growth

Louisville’s hotel occupancy rates haven’t slowed along with the U.S. economy. In fact, hotels have brought in just over 20-million dollars in tax revenue in the last fiscal year, compared with just under 16-million two years ago.Jim Wood with the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau says the growth is due to special events."We’ve had a significant increase in large conventions coming into downtown, we’ve had several major trade shows we haven’t hosted before," says Wood. "Those are really some of the driving factors as to why occupancy and average room rate has increased this year in Louisville."Local hotels impose a seven-point-five percent occupancy tax. Two-percent of that goes to bond issues… four-percent goes into the Convention and Visitors Bureau… and one-point-five percent goes to the Kentucky Center.