Tourism issues in Tahoe

5/09 unedited tahoe mt. news

By Kathryn Reed

Apparently the only place the majority of the South Lake Tahoe City Council wants fireworks is at their meetings.
In a 4-1 vote last month, the council denied the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority’s request to help fund the Labor Day fireworks show. Mayor Jerry Birdwell said aye.
After all was said and done, Birdwell admonished his colleagues, saying he couldn’t understand in a tourism based economy how they could vote no.
LTVA Executive Director Carol Chaplin said without the $60,000 allocation from the city, the fireworks are extinguished.
At the April meeting, the council came up with $10,000 for the annual air show at Lake Tahoe Airport and $5,000 for the Sports Commission, which is staging a masters track meet May 30.
City Manager Dave Jinkens said he would look into whether the airport budget could be tapped for the show. The $5,000 is likely to come out of unrestricted reserves.
The other event not funded by the city was the Lake Tahoe Marathon. Chaplin had asked for $10,000.
Even though some argue event promoter Les Wright, who is in 14th year, should have a self-sustaining race by now, the money would have gone to additional promotions in a year when luring travelers to Tahoe is taking on a new urgency to keep the South Shore alive. The marathon will go on as planned.
Ten people spoke to the council that day in an attempt to convince the political body to give LTVA $85,000 for the four events.
Council members Hal Cole and Bill Crawford took exception with Patrick Atherton’s characterization of the council being unfriendly to local businesses. He is the president of the Nevada-based chamber of commerce.
However, the fact that none of the council members was at the chamber’s spring business expo may prove Atherton’s point.
After the meeting, Chaplin said it’s hard for her to imagine going before the council in the future to ask for a large lump sum, like the $335,000 it has sought in the past. The board has not formally adopted that stance.

LTVA’s future

Mering, the Sacramento ad agency that created the Blue World, will be out of the picture after this summer.
In April, the LTVA board voted to bring on Duncan/Channon of San Francisco. The company’s first task will be to create a concept for the summer 2010 campaign.
No money exists for fall promotions. LTVA works with a conglomerate for the winter destination ski marketing campaign.
Mering’s contract was about $180,000 a year. Duncan/Channon’s contract was still be negotiated as of press time, but it will worth more. It’s expected to come out to about $175/hour. The contract is for one year at a time, with the plan for a three-year conceptual strategy.
“There are a couple of things that may be pulled out of the contract and done on a project basis. And we have only just started talking about that and what the scope is,” Chaplin explained.
Community input is being sought via a survey that can be accessed at www.ltva.org, then go to About LTVA or go directly to http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB2293W44N39Z.
Another survey with different questions will be taken of tourism related businesses, the LTVA board and business leaders.
All of the information will be part of the agency’s foundation for deciding how it goes forward.
Chaplin said the board picked the San Francisco agency because the team did its homework and understands the competition.
Some of the agency’s clients have included Birkenstock, Hard Rock, and Jackson Family Wines.
It’s expected the online ad campaign will grow. The current summer campaign is all electronic media and no print – a trend that is likely to continue. Some marketing folks contend print media, like radio and television, gives people the idea to go Lake Tahoe, while online only works when the traveler already knows where they want to go.

Spreading the word

In an effort to expand the tourism marketing message, LTVA and the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce sponsored an April 30 event called Tourism – Forecasting, Trending and Events for Summer 2009.
Chaplin was one of four guest speakers. Others included JoLyn Laney of the Nevada Commission on Tourism, Pettit Gilwee of the California Travel and Tourism Commission and Jody Franklin with the El Dorado County Visitors Authority.
Discussion focused on how the recession is affecting tourism.
“I’m not sure people get that those agencies are out there promoting our destination,” Chaplin said shortly before the event started.