Proposal puts state funding at risk for local tourism efforts

(Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) - 3/13/2008

Gettysburg and other Convention & Visitors Bureaus across Pennsylvania stand to lose tens of thousands of dollars in marketing money over the next three years under a proposed change to the state�s funding formula. The proposal would shift money away from local promotion efforts toward regional marketing initiatives.

The state tourism office, under House Bill 2303, is proposing that money used for marketing the state�s travel destinations be evenly split for regional and local efforts.

Currently, 49 local tourism promotion agencies, like the Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau, are eligible to receive marketing money through the State Matching Fund Grant program. This represents 67 percent of the state money available to tourism promotion agencies. The other 33 percent of that money is distributed to regional marketing groups. In Gettysburg�s case, this would be the Dutch Country Roads Region representing Adams, York, and Lancaster, Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Perry and Lebanon counties.

With the change, the money would be evenly split with 50 percent going to both the local tourism promotion agency and the regional marketing group. Over the three years included in the proposed plan, the Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau would lose 45 percent of its state funding.

�I am confident that not only do most legislators not fully understand the consequences of this, but most of our own convention and visitors bureaus don�t either,� said Norris Flowers, President of the Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau and one of three tourism promotion agencies directly opposed to the change. �This is just a bad business decision.�

The Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau and the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau in Lancaster also oppose the legislation.

On Tuesday during a House Tourism and Recreational Development Committee hearing, state Rep. Dan Moul, R-Adams County, proposed an amendment to the bill that would put 75 percent of the state funding in the hands of local tourism promotion agencies to spend at their own discretion on marketing their destination. That motion to amend the bill failed.

Under the matching fund program, tourism promotion agencies must spend $1 of their own money on marketing for every $2 it receives from the state.

The Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau spends about $800,000 on marketing Gettysburg and Adams County. State funding makes up 25 percent of the bureau�s annual budget, while the rest is generated through the county lodging tax and membership dues.

CONTACT:
Carl Whitehill
Media Relations Manager
Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau
(717) 338-1055
[email protected]