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Tourism agency outlines digital overhaul, short-term rental data effort and proposed grants program
Summary
The county’s tourism representative described a digital overhaul including a new website with integrated hotel bookings, short-term rental data work with the treasurer’s office and a proposed $3 million joint grant program that would put about 25% back into local grants.
The county’s tourism representative told the committee the agency is pursuing a digital transformation that includes a new website, hotel booking integration, a digital asset management system and expanded visitor analytics; staff said those steps will support efforts to attract longer-stay visitors.
The presenter said the agency will launch a redesigned site in December with a hotel reservation integration through a system called Ripe and a new visitor guide timed for winter and spring. "We're really going through a digital transformation. Accounts payable, we're taking online. We're developing a whole new data stack and a a program to develop first party data," the tourism representative said.
Short-term rental data and analytics: the presenter said earlier short-term rental counts (2,700) were questioned and that staff met with the treasurer's GIS group to overlay location data from external vendors. The tourism speaker said they had started to receive data from DataFi, a commercial data product that overlays device and credit-card data, to better segment visitor types (in-county, cross-county, regional, long-haul). The speaker said the county is weakest in attracting long-haul visitors and will target longer stays to increase economic returns.
Proposed grants program and budgets: the tourism presenter described a joint grant program between the county and SCBA with a planned budget scenario of $3,000,000; the speaker said the proposal would allocate about 25% of that amount to grants ("about $750,000") returned to the community. The presenter said a September application window was targeted so funds could be distributed in January and a subsequent January application would distribute dollars in April.
Why it matters: Improved visitor data and a larger grants program could shift marketing and community investments, with the goal of increasing length of stay and per-visitor spending.
What was not decided: The committee did not record a formal approval of the grants program or a final budget; the tourism representative said they were seeking a green light to release the program in September.
