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Visitors Bureau unveils marketing plan, commissioners ask for dollar-level budget and metrics
Summary
The Daviess County Visitors Bureau presented a new marketing plan that refocuses grant programs, proposes a feasibility study for a cultural/events center, and budgets for advertising and photography. Commissioners requested itemized dollar amounts, metrics and hotel-utilization data before larger commitments.
The Daviess County Visitors Bureau presented a marketing plan to county commissioners and council members that retools grant programs, proposes a feasibility study for a future cultural and events center and budgets for advertising, photography and a visitor guide.
The plan, presented by Visitors Bureau director Amber (last name not specified), would replace a single event-assistance grant with three tiers: an event support grant (up to $1,000; 10 awards), an advertising grant (up to $3,000; 5 awards) and an annual major-project grant (up to $10,000). Amber said the tourism commission is already setting aside 1.5 percentage points of the county’s innkeeper tax for a possible events center and that the bureau has opened a request for proposals for a feasibility study.
The plan also budgets for photography of up to 15 local events to populate a new visitors guide and advertising channels the bureau wants to test, including a radio pilot and billboards placed in regional markets. Amber described the radio pilot as a trial that currently costs about $13,650 for a half-year run, and said billboards were budgeted at $20,000 for a year and targeted to markets including Terre Haute, Evansville, Knox County and Jasper.
Why it matters: commissioners and council members said they support the effort to professionalize tourism promotion but asked for clearer, dollar-level detail and performance metrics before committing more funds. Commissioner Nathan Grama and others pressed for numeric budget line items (not percentages), measurable outcomes tied to events and hotel-utilization data to justify future investments.
Commissioners emphasized measurement and coordination. Commissioner Tom Oney asked for analytics to determine whether radio and billboard buys drive out-of-county visitors who stay overnight. Commissioner Keith and others asked the bureau to return with dollar-amount breakdowns — for example, exactly how much would be spent on billboards, radio and other line items — and to provide hotel-capacity and utilization figures to evaluate whether more rooms or different marketing are needed.
Amber said the bureau will provide dollar figures and metrics and noted that Discover Southern Indiana has Place-based analytics tools available for event measurement. She also described changes to the tourism commission’s event calendar: an incentive program asks event organizers to post their own events to the county calendar in exchange for free promotion on the radio trial.
End note: Commissioners complimented the plan’s thoughtfulness and asked the Visitors Bureau to return with numeric budget details, analytics from pilot programs and the feasibility-study RFP status so that the county can make coordinated decisions about use of innkeeper-tax proceeds.
