Touring fee.

Charleston, S.C., City Code § 2-269

in effect

Sec. 2-269. - Touring fee. (a) Findings. City council finds and declares that visitors to the city utilizing the public streets and sidewalks for purposes of touring constitute a viable component to the economic well being of the city. At the same time, the influx of visitors touring the city on public streets and sidewalks has necessitated that certain regulations be put in place to balance the needs and comfort of the visitors with those of residents. These regulations include the implementation of a tourist management program, the implementation of regulations governing the use of streets by tourist operations and the employment of personnel to secure the safety, comfort and well being of visitors, all of which has burdened the general fund of the city, and but for which the same would not be required to the extent necessary. City council finds it to be in the interest of the public and in furtherance of the general welfare that a reasonable fee be imposed upon those touring the city via public streets and sidewalks to assure a means by which the city and its environs may be enjoyed by the touring public in a safe, clean and efficient manner, without undue burden on the general public. The purpose of this section is established a mechanism by which certain funds may be collected from those participating in tours conducted on public streets and sidewalks to assist in the costs of providing those services which make the City of Charleston such a desirable place to visit. (b) There is hereby imposed a fee of fifty cents ($0.50) on every ticket or admission to a tour conducted on the public streets and sidewalks of the City of Charleston. (c) Each tour operator shall collect the fee imposed by this section from any patron when he or she pays the admission charge. Every tour operator shall hold the fee imposed by this section in trust until the same is paid to the director as herein after provided. For purposes hereof, "tour operator" shall mean the entity or individual which or who possesses a business license to conduct tours in the City of Charleston or which or who sponsors tours conducted on the streets or sidewalks of the city, and "tour" means the conduct of a sightseeing venture, for hire, in the city from the streets and/or sidewalks of the city, unless exempt by the provisions of subsection (g) hereof. (d) Prior to conducting, operating or maintaining any tour on the public streets and sidewalks of the city, which is subject to this section, each tour operator shall register with the director of revenue collections and obtain a tourism fee collection certificate. The certificate shall include, among other things, the name of the tour operator, the permanent address of the tour operator, the date upon which the certificate was issued and the statement that by obtaining a certificate, the operator agrees to collect the touring fee for the city and to comply with the city's rules and regulations for the collection of the fees. No tourism fee collection certificate may be transferred or assigned without permission of the director of business license, nor may the controlling interest in a corporation which holds a collection certificate be sold or assigned without such permission. (e) Each operator shall, on the date or within the time period hereinafter prescribed, make a return to the director of revenue collections on forms provided by the director of the total number of tours conducted and the total number of tickets sold or distributed and the amount of fees collected from the patrons. At the time the return is filed, the full amount of any touring fees shall be remitted to the director. Tourism fees and required reports shall be remitted to the director of revenue collections on or before the fifteenth (15th) day of the month and shall include all fees collected the previous month. If the due date for reporting and payment falls on a Saturday or Sunday, or a federal, state, or City of Charleston observed holiday then reporting and payment are considered timely on the following business day. Furthermore, if the due date for reporting and payment falls during the period of a natural disaster which directly precluded the responsible party from timely submitting the reports and payments, an additional ten (10) day extension may be granted upon written request by the taxpayer to the director of the revenue collections division. A natural disaster is defined as a hurricane, earthquake, flood, or tornado. The responsible party is considered directly precluded from timely submitting reports and payments if their offices are deemed by emergency officials to be damaged to the extent of being unsafe or unavailable for use due to the disaster or postal service to the immediate area is suspended during the due date. Operators who averaged less than six hundred dollars ($600.00) annually in tourism fees over the previous twelve-month period are allowed to file on a quarterly basis with the required reports and fees due on or before the fifteenth (15th) day of the following month after the quarter. The quarters are defined as January—March, April—June, July—September, and October— December. New operators are required to file monthly until a twelve-month history of tour fee filings has occurred. The failure of a tour operator to collect from patrons the fee imposed by this section shall not relieve the operator from making the required remittance to the director of revenue collections. (f) There is hereby established a special account, to be known as the touring fee account, into which all monies remitted to the city under this section shall be deposited. Any and all funds in the touring fee account, including any interest as may accrue thereon, shall be used only for the purpose of offsetting, to the extent possible, the costs to the city in providing tourism management services, including but not limited to, costs necessary to provide safe travel to the touring public along streets and sidewalks, costs necessary to assure a clean and inviting appearance to the touring public, costs necessary to implement, manage and oversee the tourism industry within the city and any such other costs as may be reasonably incurred in providing for the safety, comfort and well being of tourists on the public streets and sidewalks. (g) The fee imposed by this section shall not apply to tours comprised of children under the age of eighteen (18) who tour the city as part of a school or organized group activity or to tours conducted in vehicles described in section 29-173 of the Code of the City of Charleston. (h) Failure to file the required reports and fees as required by this section will subject the operator to a ten dollar ($10.00) penalty or a penalty of ten (10) percent of the tourism fee due, whichever is higher. The failure of a tour operator to remit to the city the fees required by this section, as and when due, shall constitute a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) or imprisonment for up to thirty (30) days, or both. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any misrepresentation of the information required by returns as set forth in subsection (e) hereof, shall subject the town operator to suspension and/a revocation of his business license and/or tour guide certificate as may be determined, after a hearing, by the business license committee. At least ten (10) days' notice of any such hearing shall be provided by the director of revenue collections to the applicable tour operator. (i) If any provision of this section or application thereof to any circumstance is held to be invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions of this section or applications of this section which can be given effect without the invalid provisions or applications, and to this end the provisions and applications of this section are severable. (Ord. No. 1993-455, § 1, 12-21-93; Ord. No. 2001-131, §§ 1—4, 12-18-01; Ord. No. 2004-127, § 1, 11-09-04)

Source: City of Charleston, South Carolina, Code of Ordinances and Zoning Ordinance (Municode Library, library.municode.com)URL: https://library.municode.com/sc/charleston/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=CICO_CH2AD_ARTVIIIFIFIPR_S2-269TOFEFetched: 11/7/2026