News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Pickett County approved a resolution for a two percent hotel occupancy tax at its commission meeting Monday night.
The tax funding comes from lodging and rentals in the area, or what some called “heads in beds.”
County Executive Stephen Bilbrey said establishing such a tax has been some 20 years in the making. He said the tax would allow the county to build a marketing fund to be used directly for tourism, Pickett’s number one industry.
“Hopefully through this money the folks that are renting rooms, Airbnbs, VRBOs, hotels, docks, cabins,” Bilbrey said. “This money can be used to help bring other people in it can just be the seed money to help bring people in. Especially during our dead months, which are the winter months.”
Bilbrey said in the resolution, the county also establishes a tourism commission. He said that will help the county commission decide how to best use the tourism fund.
Bilbrey said that only two other counties in the state do not have such a tax.
“Pickett County brings a lot of people to the lake it benefits pretty much all of our local businesses,” Bilbrey said. “Whether it be the grocery stores, the restaurants, the gas stations, I mean if you’ve got a business in Pickett County, tourism is going to affect in a positive way somehow.”
