Tourism board reviews budget, occupancy declines and marketing push; bank move and repair request noted

Sumner County — At its May 27 meeting the Sumner County Tourism Board reviewed year-to-date financials, discussed occupancy-tax trends, introduced a marketing hire and outlined programming plans — and staff proposed moving the board’s operating accounts to U.S. Bank to earn higher interest.

Board finance materials presented at the meeting showed the tourism board “way under budget in expenses” and revenues on track, the staff member said. The board’s occupancy-tax receipts remained down year over year through April, the presenter said, but cautioned that occupancy tax is only one measure and represents “about 12% of the tourism pie.” On performance metrics the staff member estimated occupancy was down “about 10% to 12%” and average daily rate had “dropped about 2 percentage points.”

On banking, staff recommended moving accounts from Edmonton Bank to U.S. Bank,…