Businesses looking at a merry Christmas - GREAT BEND TRIBUNE - Great Bend Tribune

Now, Hayes said it is up to the businesses to entice customers.

That is why Hayes and the City of Great Bend promote the annual Explore Great Bend campaign that wraps up this weekend. With different promotions each Saturday, the goal is to bring shoppers into stores.

Appropriately enough, this Saturday is also Small Business Saturday, a national effort that encourages consumers to support local businesses by shopping small.

American Express launched this shopping holiday in 2010, at the height of the Great Recession, as a way of redirecting holiday shopping to local stores. A decade later, it’s observed in all 50 states, and in 2011, the Senate passed a resolution recognizing Small Business Saturday.

“Small Business Saturday is a fun addition to end our Explore Great Bend month,” Hayes said. “It’s the day the nation celebrates and recommends shopping “small” and without our wonderful little small businesses our retail wouldn’t be as great as it is. I encourage you to go explore small businesses and support our community.”

One way to gauge the holiday economic vitality of the community is by looking at the sales tax collections, Hayes said.

Until next April when the three new city sales taxes go into effect, the city now has two: a quarter-cent tax (which goes for street needs) and a half-cent tax (which is divided among the general fund, economic development and infrastructure). It also receives a portion of the countywide sales tax.

The taxes are collected through the Kansas Department of Revenue. The KDOR then distributes the tax collections to the city with a two-month lag time (the August distribution was received in October).

Although the holiday shopping season runs mostly from October through December, included are the numbers for August through December 2019 and 2020, and August 2021.

  

Great Bend sales tax collections

2019

• August – $442,484.35

• September – $442,576.81

• October – $437,055.28

• November – $352,479.96

• December – $481,447.17

2020

• August – $451,661.94

• September – $429,653.21

• October – $429,653.54

• November – $421,842.34

• December – $454,826.62

2021

• August – $503,591

Heads in beds

When the Kansas Department of Labor last Friday reported the state’s unemployment numbers for September, KDOL economists noted a rebounding in the hospitality and leisure sectors.

In Great Bend, Hayes is seeing an increase in the local transient guest tax collected by the city. 

The total for the 2021 fiscal year was $305,660.13. This compares to the 2020 total of $281,121.51 and a 2019 total of $347,861.21.

The tax paid by hotel guests is used to fund the city’s marketing efforts.

Great Bend charges 6% for its guest tax, which is the money collected from those staying in local hotels. Of this, 10% goes to the Great Bend Events Center and the balance toward marketing the city through the CVB.

Speaking of the Events Center, Hayes said COVID hollowed out bookings for the city-owned facility. But, “so far for 2022, we only have six weekends open.”

She said that’s an indication that things are improving locally as well.

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