Lampasas council hears request to expand tourism marketing; Chamber budget review deferred

Melissa (Chamber representative) told the City of Lampasas council at a July 28 budget workshop that the chamber’s visitors center and tourism budget is included in council packets but is not before the council for formal approval at the meeting. "So we're not looking to formally approve the Chamber's budget this evening for our visitors center and tourism," Melissa said. She asked council to consider increasing marketing funding if one-time “hot” funds become available. The chamber representative described current marketing as focused largely on brochures, the website and event-specific funding, with traditional print and advertising historically in the roughly $5,000 range. She said a larger digital-plus-print package could cost in the $10,000–$20,000 range and that she could reallocate or free up funds in other areas if council wanted to expand outreach. City staff told council there is currently $60,000 allocated in "hot funding" for organizational requests and that discussion earlier in the meeting suggested some of that money might be repurposed for tourism marketing. Councilmember questions focused on baseline spending and measurement: Melissa said the chamber tracks website visits and digital brochure downloads and is working with tourtexas.com. No vote or formal appropriation for expanded marketing was taken at the workshop; staff proposed returning the chamber budget to council for final review when the city budget is finalized (staff indicated that could be in September). The chamber’s materials will be included in the city’s adopted budget later this summer, and city staff and chamber representatives said they will meet to identify a specific marketing amount before final adoption.