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New SCVA CEO outlines data-driven branding and grant plan as small businesses, arts groups warn of frozen tourism funding

3677155 · June 5, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Michael Marlon, the new president and CEO of the Sullivan County Visitors Association, presented a branding, data, and grant program plan; chamber leaders and local businesses and arts organizations urged quicker, consistent county support for tourism marketing and grant awards.

Michael Marlon, the newly installed president and CEO of the Sullivan County Visitors Association (SCVA), used his first legislative report to outline a data-driven branding strategy, a retooled grant program and changes to membership and marketing practices aimed at promoting the county as a single destination.

"We are a servant to the brand," Marlon said, describing plans to center the county under one geographic brand and to expand data capabilities. He told the legislature the SCVA has signed contracts for analytics tools including KeyData, Datify, and Symphony to aggregate lodging, booking and spending data and to create forward-looking marketing indicators.

Marlon said he has frozen the SCVA grant program temporarily to create a "grant program handbook" that defines categories, grading and distribution. He read proposed allocation buckets to the…

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