The city’s tourism marketing efforts received their first overhaul since the late 1970s on Tuesday after City Council approved a detailed plan on how money should be spent to attract more visitors to the area.
It was simply time, said council President Lori Boyer, who spearheaded the effort.
“My goal is to aim higher,” she said. “I don’t want us to just maintain what we have. I want us to enhance and improve on it.”
The revamped plan was approved 17-1, with Aaron Bowman voting in opposition.
Boyer said the revamped plan clarifies what council believes priorities for marketing the area should be and establishes financial minimums and maximums for how money is spent. The initial plan went into effect in 1979.
For instance, in fiscal year 2016-17, the bill establishes marketing outside the city and promoting Jacksonville as a convention and meeting site should each have budgets of $2 million.
Tourism bureaus should have $300,000 spent on them. Special event grants can total $800,000 and a fund set aside for improving and acquiring attractions should have up to $500,000.
Additionally, Boyer said, the bill essentially cleans up the old language and better defines what the city and Tourist Development Council, the nine-member governing body that oversees the collection and distribution of the local-option tourist tax, can and should be doing.
Tourism funding comes from the city’s six-cent bed tax, which is tacked on to hotel room nights and other rental lodging. In 2015-16, that was about $6.3 million.
Boyer said the bill also sets up what could be coming for Jacksonville’s marketing efforts through its next request for proposals for that tourism marketing group.
The current contract is with Visit Jacksonville, the convention and visitors bureau for Jacksonville and the Beaches.
With the contract expiring at the end of the fiscal year, Boyer said the hope is to generate interest, possibly on separate components of the plan, like the marketing aspect.
While groups who seek to handle all of the tourism efforts could end up being ranked higher when selecting a vendor, she wants to see who can offer what.
That call for vendors and plans should hit the streets within the first few months of 2017 to allow enough time for any transition if Visit Jacksonville were not to secure the contract again.
After the meeting, Bowman said his “no” vote wasn’t in opposition to the content of the plan itself, rather how the result was attained. He said he would have liked to have seen more input from the start by the tourism board, rather than Boyer.
@writerchapman
(904) 356-2466