It sure was a long time coming.
Finally, in 2011, Rhode Island received definitive word that an America’s Cup preliminary race would be coming to Newport in 2012.
The news marked the culmination of years of energetic campaigning on the part of the state, the city and sailing advocates to bring the crown jewel of international sailboat racing back to the City by the Sea.
Sure, the race is not THE America’s Cup that everyone hoped for, which is slated for San Francisco in 2013. But it is one of only three World Series matches scheduled in 2012, with the other two set for Venice and Rome.
Just word alone that the race will be held in Newport generated heightened interest in hospitality and economic development circles.
“It is good to see the excitement in Rhode Island about it,” said Paul Harden of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, who in 2011 was named to the newly created position of executive director of the America’s Cup Rhode Island. “You can’t go to Newport and not talk to someone about it. It really energizes people.”
Barring an unforeseen disaster, the hospitality industry is sure to benefit from the nine-day series of races, June 23 to July 1.
As many as 90,000 people could attend, generating a projected $72 million in revenue and creating an estimated 400 part- and full-time jobs, with many of those new positions in the hospitality industry. Lodgings in Newport will no doubt be booked solid, so hotels in the rest of Aquidneck Island, Warwick and Providence should benefit as well, along with nearby eateries and tourist attractions.
The state’s investment to date is Harden’s $1.3 million budget, intended mostly for infrastructure improvements to Fort Adams.
Big news of a less positive nature came when the General Assembly extended the 7 percent sales tax to scenic and sight-seeing tours within the state, which took effect Oct. 1.
Massachusetts and Connecticut already tax these tours, state officials said. The absence of any competitive advantage for neighboring states is a key reason why lawmakers said they chose this mechanism. The tour tax was slated to bring in about $1 million in its first 10 months of operation.
The hospitality industry did not campaign against the new tax, but certainly raised a lot of questions that prompted officials to hold public hearings in various parts of the state. Dale J. Venturini, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, worried in particular about small-scale tour operators, the one- or two-person operations without the staff to collect the tax and do the related bookkeeping. “That’s hours of work,” she said.
Other hospitality points of interest that marked 2011 included:
• Reopening of the 163-room NYLO Hotel Providence/Warwick in Warwick in August, damaged by floods in 2010.
• Opening in April of the first hotel at Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, the 140-suite TownePlace Suites by Marriott.
• Establishment in May by Providence restaurateur Robert Burke of the 2.5-mile Independence Trail, with narratives for 26 historic sites accessible by cell phone.
• News that the Blackstone Valley may become a national historic park in 2012.
• And late in the year, the news that WaterFire Providence, one of the state’s largest tourist attractions, needs more revenue to remain in business. •
