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Council approves one‑year, $450,000 Travel Ashland contract for destination marketing
Summary
Council directed staff to contract with Travel Ashland for a one‑year, $450,000 agreement to fund destination marketing, a new business marketing pilot, Chamber support and analytics, using recommended Transient Lodging Tax allocations.
The Ashland City Council on May 6 authorized a one‑year contract with Travel Ashland for $450,000 to provide destination marketing services funded from Transient Lodging Tax revenue.
Katherine Cato, Travel Ashland director, presented a proposed program emphasizing year‑round visitation, paid and earned media, data and analytics, and a new Travel Ashland 101 business marketing pilot. Staff outlined a proposed TLT distribution that would allocate approximately 45% to destination marketing, 35% to events/attractions, 15% to infrastructure and 5% to data and research. Council discussed an alternative $450,000 package that would include $350,000 for destination marketing, $50,000 for the business marketing program, $15,000 for Chamber programs and $35,000 for data analytics. Staff recommended a one‑year contract with an option to renew to allow further discussion in the second half of the biennium. The motion (Bloom; second Kaplan) passed unanimously. Roll call: Dahle, Bloom, DuQuenne, Kaplan and Hansen — yes.
The contract is to be executed by staff and will include reporting and measurable performance indicators as outlined in the Travel Ashland proposal. Staff characterized the contract as cost recovery for staff time associated with program administration and noted that parking infrastructure dollars were earmarked for later discussion.
