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oney, and what to spend it on, was once again the focus of the Oriental Tourism Board when it met on Wednesday May 27 for its regular monthly meeting. The Board also heard an update on a private effort to bring a Dragon Boat Race to the area and agreed to pay $1388 in public funds for some advance work on that private effort.

Present for the meeting were outgoing chair Katy Pugh, Cathy McIlhenny, Marlene Miller and Rich Wertin, and for the later part of the meeting, Flora Moorman. Mcilheney was voted in as the new chair and treasurer. Rich Wertin was elected vice-chair.

Occupancy Rates Down

Cathy McIlhenny, who runs the Oriental Marina Inn and Toucan Grill Restaurant, reported that “the occupancy rate is down 50%” in the town’s lodging establishments, $100,000 less has been taken in compared to the same time last year. If that trend continues, fewer dollars will be collected by way of Oriental’s 3% occupancy tax, shrinking the Tourism Board’s budget in the next fiscal year.

(The Tourism Board receives half of the occupancy tax charged in Oriental over the course of a year. In recent times, the town has collected approximately $22,000 a year. One half goes to the town’s general fund to spend on waterfront items that would enhance tourism, while the other half goes to the Tourism Board.)

At the May meeting, the Tourism Board heard several requests for spending the money.

Binders for Hotel and B&B Rooms

Candace Young, head of the Circle 10 Art Gallery, updated the board on her efforts to create binders for hotel rooms that would list all the art galleries and restaurants in the area. Young was proposing that 75 binders be created and said that every lodging establishment in the area — with the exception of the Oriental Marina Inn — had agreed to put them in their rooms. The restaurants and art galleries would pay to appear in the binder and Young said there would also be space for smaller ads from other businesses that might be of interest to visitors — such as sailing charters, sailing schools and realtors. She estimated that the printing cost would be $1950, some of which would be defrayed by the galleries and restaurants. She asked the board for $800.

Tourism Board member Rich Wertin said that the Tourism Board had been focusing its funds on advertising to draw people to town. Noting the $800 request, Wertin said the money could go toward an ad in the News and Observer which, he said, could drive potential visitors to Oriental’s tourism website. If we don’t get to them through the advertising, he said, they don’t come.

Young said she thought the Tourism Board also spent money on tourists once they arrived in town and that as a tourist she would be more likely to pay a return visit to an area if she learned what they had to offer on the first visit. Board member Marlene Miller said she also thought the binders Young was proposing would “encourage repeat visitors” by showing what there was to do.

While most of the galleries and restaurants in the binder would be within the town limits, some outside of town would also be included. This has been a point of contention for spending the town’s tourism tax money in the past. Liaison to the Tourism Board, Town Commissioner Candy Bohmert suggested that the county’s Committee of 100 might be able to pitch in as well and the idea could be presented at its meeting in mid-June.

Katy Pugh suggested the Tourism Board hear the other requests for funds that evening and see what the budget, with the end of the fiscal year approaching, might accommodate. (It eventually voted to provide up to $500 if not enough advertising dollars paid for the printing)

Croakerfest Seeks Tourism Board Money

The next request was the biggest of the night.

Candy Bohmert, head organizer of the Croaker Festival (and the Town Commissioner who is the Tourism Board’s liaison) asked for $5,000 for the July event. It was the first time, Bohmert said, that Croakerfest came to the Tourism Board asking for money.

“If there’s anything that puts heads in beds and promotes the town, it’s the festival.” Bohmert said. “My fear is that we’re not going to have enough money to cover it, or not have enough money to leave for the person who takes it over next year.”

This year, the cost of the Saturday night fireworks display rose from the usual $6,000 to $10,000, she said, because it falls on the Fourth of July when the fireworks company is in high demand. In addition, Bohmert said, there weren’t as many vendors signing up, nor as many ads being sold. In the past, those have been two significant sources of income for the festival.

Marlene Miller noted that the $5,000 request represented about half of the Tourism Board’s annual budget. “Hopefully it’s a one time thing,” Katy Pugh said. While voicing a concern that if the economy didn’t pick up, the Tourism Board might be asked again next year to help pay for Croakerfest, Pugh said she thought it was a “reasonable request.” She noted that the Tourism Board last year gave $500 to the Spirit of Christmas event when its organizer, Lori Wagoner, asked for some help.

Pugh said that there might be enough money in the budget, taking in to account funds that won’t be spent by the end of the fiscal year, June 30. She toted up the figures and determined there was about $4,600. The board voted 4-0 to provide some financial support to the Croakerfest.

Other Efforts To Promote Town

The Tourism Board discussed other advertising and which efforts it should pay for.

It agreed to pay $600 to the bi-monthly magazine, Carolina Currents — $100 an issue for a year — for ads promoting the town and leading to its website.

Cathy McIlhenny showed the board a brochure she designed, which included a map drawn by local artist Evie Chang Henderson. The brochures, she said, would be largely distributed at rest stops along the Interstates and at tourist spots such as Tryon Palace, and some businesses in town. McIlhenny asked for $3,000 to pay for the cost of printing 10,000 copies. McIlhenny said that the map would be ringed by ads from 30 local businesses, which could cover the printing. (It was noted that in the past, realtors in the area paid for similar brochures and maps.) The board voted to provide up to $3,000 for the printing of McIlheney’s brochure if the ad money fell short.

The board also voted to spend $1,750 thru continued advertising with the North Carolina Waterman’s Association: $500 for a banner ad on the recreational fishing organization’s website, and $1250 ($25 a week for a year) for an ad to appear on the weekly cable TV program, Coastal Carolina Fishing Report. Rich Wertin said he would recuse himself from that discussion.

Rich Wertin said that in the past month, 7 visits to Oriental’s tourism website originated from the fishing website. In all, he said, the town’s tourism website, which he was paid to design, had 2,414 visitors in the previous 31 days.

Dragon Boat Race

With no discussion, the Tourism Board voted 4-0 to spend $1,388.26 to pay for a March visit to Oriental by two representatives of Dynamic Events & Management, a Knoxville, Tennessee company. The purpose of the Dynamic Events visit was to pitch the town the idea of a 3-day dragon boat event— in which boats with up to 20 rowers compete to the accompaniment of drums. These races have been done in several other cities — Lake Lure, NC was one such site recently — and the Dragon Boat Race in Oriental was tentatively set for August 9.

The invoice from the Dynamic Events advance team shows charges of $700 for “Site Visit,” $604.36 for “Total Mileage” and $33.60 for “Meals.” The $1,388 that the Tourism Board voted to pay at the May meeting comes out of the $2,000 line item in the Tourism Budget that is set aside to pay the room and board for visiting travel writers and broadcasters who write about Oriental.

The cost — and concept of paying a company to make its pitch — has drawn more attention than usual to the Tourism Board’s spending.

One member of the board, Flora Moorman, is working independently, through her business, Downeast Destinations to bring the Dragon Boat Race to town.

Arriving toward the end of the May Tourism Board meeting, Moorman said she “didn’t know there would be consternation on anyone’s part” about the Dynamic Events invoice for $1,388 that she presented to the Tourism Board for the site visit. Moorman said that the tourism board had previously agreed that the dragon boat company should come to make its pitch, but she acknowledged that the board hadn’t formally voted on it prior to the visit.

As it turns out, there will be no Dragon Boat Race this year. Moorman reported to her fellow Tourism Board members about the difficulty she was having in finding sponsors who could defray the cost of the event. The price of renting the boats, setting up the race course and paying the trainers to coach participants for two days before the race would be $12,000-$19,000, she said. That fee, charged by Dynamic Events, depends on how many boats take part.

As envisioned, participants would be trained to row the boats in the waters off of Oriental on a Friday and Saturday. The actual race would not happen in town. Instead, it would be held on a Sunday at the lagoon at River Dunes.

A tourism board member asked Moorman if River Dunes would be providing any sponsorship money and was told it would not. So far, no sponsors have come forward to bankroll the event. (A website set up for the race mentions sponsorship levels of up to $15,000.) With no money, the event was scratched for this August.

Moorman hopes to set up the dragon races for next year and told the Tourism Board that she’d been seeking assistance in attracting funding. She said she’d spoken with an events planning specialist at Duke University on how to “improve the approach in asking for money.” One suggestion that came out of that meeting, she said, was that “we should try to work more with the Asian groups in the Raleigh and Durham area.”

Moorman said she had also contacted the NC Secretary of Commerce’s office and was given contact info on an economic development person. Further, there were plans to contact a Raleigh TV station owner about media coverage, which, it was thought, might make more sponsors come on board.

A tourism Board member asked what Moorman needed from them and she said she needed a date for the event to happen in 2010. She proposed penciling in a June 2010 weekend, but Rich Wertin noted the proximity to Croakerfest and questioned whether businesses would get behind another event of that scope. Marlene Miller asked about doing it at a time of year that is otherwise slower, tourism-wise. There was discussion about avoiding the height of hurricane season. August of next year was mentioned.

Moorman is to report back to the board at its June meeting.

Katy Pugh said that when the idea of the Dragon Boat Race first came up, the Tourism Board was not to put in “a penny”; rather, she said, all the money was to come from sponsorships, and those people who wanted to participate. That position appears to have changed with the Tourism Board okaying the $1388 expenditure for the dragon boat organizers to come to town to make their pitch.

Flora Moorman told the Tourism Board that Rich Wertin “has put together a wonderful website” about the Dragon Boat Race and that it was “ready to go.” The cost, she said, was $750. The Tourism Board was not being asked to pay for it at the May meeting. It was, Wertin said, “on an open invoice.” A reporter asked what that meant and Wertin said that “I was told I would get paid for the time. When will be determined at a later date.” Moorman meanwhile, says she has not charged for mileage.

Conversation About Interests

Afterward, as the meeting was ending, the Tourism Board talked about perceptions in some quarters that their service on the board may conflict with their lines of work. Of the conversation that could be heard from the audience, those tourism board members who spoke said that they didn’t see a conflict of interest or self-serving interests.

(The Town Manager, Randy Cahoon has suggested the town develop an ethics standard for all of the boards.)

Back To A Five-Person Tourism Board

The Tourism Board has seats for 7 members, though at the board’s request it is being scaled back to a 5-member board because of difficulty in filling the 7th seat. The change will also make it easier to have a quorum. With the smaller board, votes may be taken if at least three of the five are present.

The next Tourism Board meeting is Wednesday, June 24 at 7p at Town Hall. It is open to the public.

Posted Tuesday June 9, 2009 by Melinda Penkava