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Canton considers county tourism promotion resolution [The Daily Review, Towanda, Pa. :: ](Daily Review (Towanda, PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 23--CANTON -- Canton Borough Council is among the municipalities that haven't yet made a formal decision on the county's tourism promotion resolution, but will the matter soon become a moot point? On Friday, county commissioner Doug McLinko said the county is "rapidly approaching" the number of approvals that it needs for its plans. At its last meeting, Canton Borough Council heard presentations from McLinko and Jean M. Ruhf (Gasper), executive director of the Endless Mountains Visitors Bureau (EMVB). The county wants to spend the revenue from its 3 percent room tax on its own, rather than continue to send the revenue to the EMVB. Specifically, the commissioners want to designate a new tourism promotion agency. However, for the commissioners' plan to go forward, the governing bodies of municipalities in the county, which together represent over 50 percent of the county's population, must pass a resolution approving the designation of the new tourism promotion agency for the county. So far, those getting behind the county include Athens Borough, South Waverly Borough, Sayre Borough, Burlington Township, West Burlington Township, Litchfield Township, Rome Township, Smithfield Township, North Towanda Township, Wilmot Township, Wysox Township, and Sheshequin Township, according to McLinko. He said there are about a dozen other townships "leaning our way." As a result, McLinko said the county is "rapidly approaching" the 51 percent number that it needs. However, McLinko stressed that he wants everyone on board. Earlier, he indicated that he would talk to the South Creek Township supervisors about supporting the resolution, even though they declined to support it. McLinko said he talked with South Creek Township Supervisor Stanley Sterling, and said Sterling expressed a willingness to listen to him. Even municipalities without a tourism draw have a "vested interest," McLinko said, because they may have natural gas or wind turbine workers staying in hotels and paying room tax. Speaking to Canton Borough Council at its regular monthly meeting this month, McLinko said the county has a "incredible" opportunity to make the county better, from both business and tourism standpoints. He said there has been "a lot of misinformation floated around," such as the commissioners not having "a plan." He said there is a "vision." "We can't put forth a plan, any kind of a structure, until we get 51 percent of the vote," he explained. He said, "We do have a vision, but to have a legal plan, we will not have that until after we get 51 percent of the vote." He told council that part of the commissioners' vision is to bring the five chambers of commerce of Bradford County together, which identified as the chambers in Canton, Troy, the Valley, Central Bradford and Wyalusing. "We're going to have a county discussion on how we're going to promote our county," he added. McLinko also said the county wasn't going to start a "big bureaucracy" or hire a lot of people, but get someone who is "very qualified" to organize the marketing that needs to be done, both from within and outside the county. The commissioner said the county has an image problem outside the county that needs "cleaned up," as a result of the few "who go out and talk about the bad things of Marcellus Shale and natural gas" and create misconceptions. He said one commissioner from Somerset County came to Bradford County, and commented, "this is beautiful, this isn't what I was told." Another from Lancaster County made such a statement as well, he said. McLinko said people need to know Bradford County is "clean, green, beautiful, and open for business." He also said, "the (room tax) grant program will continue, make no mistake about that." "And because we're going to have a bigger pot of money, it (the grant program) could get better." Council member Kurt Bastion said, "we need to do something to attract more businesses to join the chamber." "I think this can do it," McLinko said. "Let's get people excited about chambers, I love chambers." McLinko was asked about the timeframe for the commissioners' plans. The votes by the municipalities will need to take place prior to March 8, 2015, which is the date on which two of the commissioners have said they intend to sever the county's contract with the EMVB. McLinko said, "once we get the 51 percent, we will start building our organization, we're going to bring everybody, we're going to have an open discussion, we're going to talk about the structure, we're going to get it together, and then in April, we're going to enact it and we will go to work." "It's going to be people from all four corners and in between that are going to put this together, it's us. It's not about the commissioners, it's not about the Endless Mountain Visitors Bureau, it's about the people in Bradford County, Pa., our businesses, how best we can promote this county that we all love, equally throughout the entire county." "We're recognized as being part of 'Endless Mountains,'" council member Darryl Jannone pointed out. "What will be the impact in Bradford County of losing that enterprise approach and no longer being able to be associated with 'Endless Mountains?'" he asked. "The Endless Mountains is an area," McLinko said. "Just because we're going to start our own (organization) doesn't mean we're going to cut ties with our region, but what it does mean is we're going to promote ourselves from within." He said businesses can still join the EMVB, even if the commissioners' plans go forward. McLinko commented later that the issue is about room tax, not memberships. "How can you say that what you're going to do is going to be quantifiable," borough administrator Amy Seeley asked. "We're working with the chambers of commerce," McLinko said. Later in the meeting, McLinko said, "to quantify all of it, our chambers are going to know (if tourism promotion is working). If it doesn't work, then we'll readjust and try something different." Jannone said he frequently used the EMVB website in the past to check events, and said he was a firm believer in "why fix something that is not broke?" He also wanted to know the impact of removing the "Endless Mountains logo." McLinko said, "we're not telling you, 'you can't belong to it (the EMVB)." He said the visitors bureau can still sell memberships. "I'm going to tell you right now, we're going to make it better, and the people, these chambers, are going to do it." Speaking to council, Ruhf addressed the comments at the meeting about quantifying information. "Everybody who gets a grant from us has to put in an application," she said. According to EMVB, 30 percent of the Hotel Occupancy Tax collected in Bradford County goes back to Bradford County organizations in the form of a grant program. The remaining 70 percent is still used to promote the county as part of the Endless Mountains Region in several ways, such as advertising outside of the four-county area to attract visitors, groups, meetings, and businesses to come to the Endless Mountains. One of the questions in the grant application, Ruhf said, requires the applicant to "give us a history of your event. How did that event go? They have to do a follow-up report where they give us numbers, where they're giving us statistics on how room tax has helped the event grow." She said they also have to provide information on any factors, such as a storm, that caused an event attendance to be down. She noted several ways in which EMVB has included western Bradford County, citing, for example, its interaction with the Manley-Bohlayer Farm in East Canton. "We've met with them, we've brought in our sales consultant to help them grow the Apple 'n Cheese Festival, grow the Wine Festival, things like that have been happening." She questioned how taking Bradford County out of the Endless Mountains brand would help the county. There is also an EMVB rack, with brochures, in Doc's Irish Inn in Canton, she noted. Ruhf said the visitors bureau does a "swap" membership with all the chambers of commerce. "They're our members, we're their member. We have their information on our website." As a result, people can click the link for a particular chamber and go to that chamber's website and view its members, if they are listed. Ruhf shared some of the visitors bureau's marketing materials, such as the Endless Mountains Calendar of Events that is put out annually and distributed. She said "it goes throughout our state; throughout, actually, the entire country." "We print 160,000 copies of our annual guide each year," she said. She noted that a "Come Visit the Endless Mountains" advertising campaign was in 85 train cars in Philadelphia in February and March. "And when we say quantifiable results, the searches on both the website and the visits to our page increased dramatically because of this campaign with people from the Philadelphia area," she said. She also noted that the visitors bureau hired a sales consultant, with 12 years of experience in sales for tourism. "He is now doing sales blitzes to AAA offices, he is going out to promote fall foliage." She said the visitors bureau partners "very closely" with Bradford County Regional Arts Council for its theaters, including the Rialto in Canton. In response to questions from Jannone, she noted that the bureau's efforts include getting journalists to come to the area and write tourism stories. "What gets people to this area is people writing stories," she said. "We pitch stories to travel writers all the time to get people here." "We're not the enemy here, we're the partner," she said. She said the bureau is still willing to work very closely with the commissioners on any type of project they would want to do in Bradford County. Eric Hrin can be reached at (570) 297-5251; email: [email protected]. ___ (c)2014 The Daily Review (Towanda, Pa.) Visit The Daily Review (Towanda, Pa.) at thedailyreview.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |