hotel pattee

The City of Perry is a member of the Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau, and are one of several cities that contribute to the hotel/motel tax.

Mayor Jay Pattee, who represents the City on the Board, says the Bureau presents information on the amount of monies collected by each municipality with the tax, and Perry has been a pacesetter. “What I took as very encouraging was that the amount that Perry contributes has gone up over a year ago. And it went up over a year ago a year ago, and it’s been doing that for about six years. So we are increasing our hotel/motel tax, and it’s a great sign.”

To put the increase Perry has experienced in perspective, Pattee says there have been several new hotels opened in the Des Moines metro area, which has increased the amount received through the tax from those areas. However, Perry was still .02 of a point ahead of the increases in Des Moines, in spite of not having any new hotels. Pattee says that indicates the tourism and people staying overnight for business in Perry has outpaced the other municipalities.

Pattee believes one of the factors is the growing bicycle trend. Perry has proven to be very bike friendly and is a prime location along the popular Raccoon River Valley Trail. Pattee foresees even bigger gains once the “Let’s Connect” project links the RRVT to the High Trestle Trail in Woodward, essentially making Perry the hub of the central Iowa trail system.

To hear more about this and other City of Perry topics, listen to Thursday’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.