When a crisis hits, messaging from those impacted often becomes frantic and scattered. But, for some, it becomes crystalline.
That was the case when thee Madison Room Tax Commission (a layer of oversight in Wisconsin that recommends to government how Room Tax revenues should be invested) met a couple weeks ago. In one of the best presentations I've seen by a DMO CEO, Deb Archer (beginning at the 44:30 mark) hit the perfect note at the perfect time: Destination Madison's work supports the livelihood of 22,000 people in her county. And, if Madison is anything like the national average...that means 11,000 residents need Destination Madison to be the first in line for funding...not the last (as the Manager of the attached Convention Center hotel said so eloquently at the 2:04.45 mark). For, if Destination Madison is budgetarily unable to attract visitors back to the Mad City, directing revenues to empty facilities is kinda counter-productive.
Over the weekend, I saw another angle that I had never considered...and it came from a column on Hospitality.net from Tom Hazinski and Joseph Hansel of HVS: the lack of federal support for Destination Marketing Organizations "has placed at risk the substantial investment of state and local governments in the tourism and hospitality industries."
In other words, without an aggressively funded marketing effort, State, City and County investments in convention centers, performing arts centers and other infrastructure assets will collapse, plunging local governments into facing drastic cuts to resident services.
Keep the innovative messages coming, people. We're gonna need every one to stave off the knee-jerk reaction of "we all need to share the pain evenly."
No. We don't. Not income generators like DMOs.
Well said Bill and kudos Deb Archer!
Posted by: Tracey Burkey | June 18, 2020 at 09:34