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Yarmouth committee reviews tourism fund, outlines FY27 buckets and projects
Summary
The committee reviewed the Town of Yarmouth’s tourism revenue preservation fund—25% of local rooms tax—and presented FY27 allocations and projects including Parkers River Landing work, Station Ave Playground and marketing contracts with the Chamber of Commerce.
Megan Eldridge, director of community development, presented an overview of the Tourism Revenue Preservation Fund, the committee’s statutory charge and the FY27 spending plan during the Community and Economic Development Committee meeting.
Eldridge explained the fund receives 25% of the local rooms tax and is intended for tourism economic development: events, marketing and visitor services, promotional activities, recreational and public improvements and related projects. She said the fund was created under the Chapter 338, Acts of 2006 and amended in 2023 to explicitly include short-term rental collections.
Eldridge reported the tourism fund for fiscal year 2027 was approximately $564,264 (figure presented at the meeting). She presented the FY27 allocation across five buckets: special events (about $150,264), marketing and visitor services (about $205,000), public improvements (about $130,000), economic development projects ($40,000) and personnel ($40,000). Eldridge noted these figures were drawn from past spending and anticipated needs and that unspent funds roll forward into the next year.
Committee members discussed examples of projects funded in recent years: Parkers River Landing irrigation and upweller fencing, Station Ave Playground ($50,000), Chase Brook Park amenities, a $50,000 allocation toward a Revolutionary War monument and ongoing invasive species management. Eldridge said roughly $7 million has been put back into the community through the fund since its inception.
On short-term rentals, Eldridge cited a recent town study showing roughly 1,200 listings on platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO versus fewer than 1,000 properties registered in the town’s rental registry; she said the study was inconclusive on whether STRs remove affordable housing stock but confirmed more platform listings than official registrations.
Eldridge also described the town’s marketing contract, currently held by the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce, which provides monthly reports to the committee that will be reviewed as part of regular oversight. Members discussed whether to continue the current contract or open a new request for proposals when the contract term ends.
