[Matt Can't Read]

For many years, Myrtle Beach has become a staple in the vacation plans for many people around the world. With its 14.6 million annual visitors, its estimated 2,000 restaurants and 460 hotels, it’s obvious that the main driving force behind the success of the Grand Strand is its tourist operations.

In a city where tourism is the cash cow among most of its residents, one might think that its city council and major decision makers would have the city’s business owners and resident’s best interests in mind when it comes time to vote on laws and regulations that affect the population that they are sworn to protect.

However, it seems that Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes and the city council are doing the exact opposite. Along with the controversial helmet law that has recently been put into effect for the 2009 Bike Week, Myrtle Beach City Council has changed the rules on vendor and special events permits and is now trying to push for a 1% sales tax increase on visitors and residents alike.

Read the Full Article on Discover Myrtle Beach News
http://www.discoverm...keweeklooms.cfm

Lets hear your opinion!

[jdmacfam]

For many years, Myrtle Beach has become a staple in the vacation plans for many people around the world. With its 14.6 million annual visitors, its estimated 2,000 restaurants and 460 hotels, it’s obvious that the main driving force behind the success of the Grand Strand is its tourist operations.

In a city where tourism is the cash cow among most of its residents, one might think that its city council and major decision makers would have the city’s business owners and resident’s best interests in mind when it comes time to vote on laws and regulations that affect the population that they are sworn to protect.

However, it seems that Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes and the city council are doing the exact opposite. Along with the controversial helmet law that has recently been put into effect for the 2009 Bike Week, Myrtle Beach City Council has changed the rules on vendor and special events permits and is now trying to push for a 1% sales tax increase on visitors and residents alike.

Read the Full Article on Discover Myrtle Beach News
http://www.discoverm...keweeklooms.cfm

Lets hear your opinion!

Wow, that was a great story. I can't believe all the nonsense that is going on. The fact that the mayor and council are entirely against bike week, and seemingly tourism altogether (sales tax increase) lead me to speculate that there is a more powerful invisible force driving this thing. Why would they want to be responsible when the revenue and tourism in MB declines so rapidly in the matter of just a year?

We were there during bike week last year and the only thing that really irked us was the congested traffic. We never saw anything risque or inappropriate (of course we weren't out with the fam late at night either). Everyone was having a good time and for the most part, courteous to other drivers (with a few exceptions).

The sales tax increase is rediculous...higher than NYC and other more southern tourism spots? Seriously, WTF are those people doing? What can be done to impeach or overthrow the people making these decisions for the city? Maybe that should be something BOOST looks into and starts distributing???

Also, the fact that the two bike weeks are made up of totally different crowds should play a big part in the regulations instead of council making them blanket regs. Why would they want to eliminate both BW's when they could simply create the regulations to be in effect for the Atlantic bike week - if that indeed is the fire behind all of this. I can't say that the Atlantic BW crowd is worse than the Harley crowd but I can say that the Harley crowd was acceptable to our family. Plus, this year, we just planned accordingly so we wouldn't have to be caught up in all that crazy traffic. We are still arriving before the end of the Harley BW and will probably run in to the Atlantic BW crowd on our way out. That is if there is a BW crowd on either end.

The bottom line is, like the article said, it's only 10 days.....in fact, it's 10 days and millions of dollars of revenue being refused...what a bunch of donkeys