By Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON, W.Va. — More resorts and other lodgers offering accommodations to ATV tourists are appearing in Mercer County, but several are not listed as businesses and as a result, they are not paying a county hotel/motel tax that helps fund tourism development.
More entrepreneurs in Mercer County have been offering rooms, cabins, camping sites and other places to stay as the number of ATV tourists coming to ride the Hatfield-McCoy Trail continues to grow.
“In recent years, there has been a surge in lodging, ranging from resorts and cabins to vacation homes, to accompany the ATV industry,” according to Executive Director Jamie Null of the Mercer County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Many times, these new businesses are not complying with state and local regulations.”
There are a number of reasons why new lodging providers are not complying with these regulations, she said.
“It can simply be that they just don’t know or understand what comes with owning a business that caters to tourism or the community,” Null said. “This could be because they are new to the state and the industry. For example, there is a local hotel/motel tax and we need to educate about how that tax, which is passed on to the customer and a tax that multiple counties and states use, helps to support and grow tourism.” …
