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Convention and Visitors Bureau seeks larger share of lodging tax to sustain accredited operations
Summary
The Hampshire County Convention and Visitors Bureau requested a larger percentage of lodging-tax revenue to keep an executive director position and maintain marketing and accreditation requirements; commissioners did not decide at the meeting.
Representatives of the Hampshire County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) asked commissioners on March 11 to increase the county’s allocation from the lodging (hotel/motel/vacation-rental) tax to sustain an accredited CVB and its executive director position.
Peg (CVB board member) and Tina Ladd (CVB executive director) told the commission that West Virginia requires accredited CVBs to meet staffing and budget allocation rules (roughly 40 percent marketing, 40 percent payroll and 20 percent operations) and that the CVB had regained accreditation in January. Ladd said the lodging tax is paid by visitors staying in hotels, motels and short-term rentals, not by general county residents, and the CVB is asking for a larger percentage of that tax to fund ongoing operations.
Ladd described recent activities including a successful Sip and Savor event and plans for a regional partnership with Mineral and Morgan counties under a West Virginia Tourism landing page called the Potomac River Highlands Region. She said early business reports from the farm-crawl event showed some local businesses doubled revenue on the event day.
Commissioners thanked the CVB for its work and said budget decisions will be made on Friday when the commission meets with department heads; no formal action on the CVB request was taken on March 11.
