Council approves five-year contract extension for Visit Columbus; CEO outlines research-driven marketing plan
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Summary
Columbus city council voted to extend the city's contract with its destination marketing organization for five years. Visit Columbus CEO Ashley (last name) told council the organization will invest in data tools, expanded sales and marketing staff and closer partnerships to grow visitor spending and hotel tax revenue.
Council voted on Oct. 14 to extend Columbus’ contract with Visit Columbus for another five years, approving the destination marketing organization’s role as the city’s official recipient of tourism-related hotel-motel tax proceeds.
Visit Columbus CEO Ashley (last name given in meeting) told the council the organization plans to shift from “status quo” marketing to a data- and research-driven approach, citing new analytics tools and a planned expansion of sales and marketing staff.
“We are not maintaining a status quo,” Ashley said in the council chambers. She outlined upgrades the organization has purchased to better measure visitors’ origins and behaviors, including a tourism-economics platform that blends hotel STR data, short-term-rental analytics and geolocation inputs. The platform will be used to identify high-potential origin markets, measure conversions from marketing campaigns, and report monthly performance.
Key items the CEO described: - Investment in a “Symphony” tourism-economics platform and AirDNA/STR integration to profile visitation and spending patterns. - New director-level hires to strengthen sales and marketing capacity for convention and sports business. - A strategic planning process with town halls and stakeholder engagement to align Visit Columbus priorities with the city’s regional prosperity initiative.
Council discussed the hotel-motel tax structure and neighboring cities’ tourism revenue while voting on the contract. A motion to approve the five-year extension passed by voice vote (ayes). No supplementary funding was approved in the meeting; Ashley said the organization will continue to provide annual budget documents and third-party audits.
Visit Columbus reported steady visitation of roughly 2.07 million visitors in the year referenced by its analysis and estimated visitor economic impact of about $377 million and support for around 4,500 jobs. The CEO said the organization will publish more detailed, monthly analytics and periodically share reports with council.