Clay Gregory heads the Napa Valley Destination Council. They want to create a “tourism business improvement district”. Gregory says ultimately…visitors will end up footing the bill.

“The cost would go to the consumers, yep. The assessment would be a total of 2% on whatever their room rate is. So a hotel that costs less money would have a small assessment in terms of dollars. But it will be 2% across the county.”

Gregory says the tourism district would generate about four-Million dollars each year. Right now, Napa County is only paying about $430,000 a year to promote the area. There are already 41 such tourism districts in California. And Gregory notes that Napa needs to catch up in spending to neighboring areas like Sonoma County to compete for business.

A majority of Napa hotels and inns must approve the proposal for it to pass.