Tourism Board Plans For Future Marketing

Tourism board plans for future marketing

By Cliff Sain
BDN Staff Writer

It was a four-year struggle to get a new marketing tax approved by voters Tuesday, but now the real work begins.

Kent Turner, chairman of the tourism district board of directors, said he's currently trying to determine when he can get the seven-member board together for a meeting. The board's next step will be to solicit proposals from companies interested in being the tax board's marketing agent. Turner said he hopes that some of the tax money can be used for a winter ad campaign in late 2006.

“The state won't start collecting the tax until next April, so we won't get those funds until late next year,” Turner said. “The plan is to be able to have a 2007 marketing campaign and maybe something for late 2006.”

Turner said the board will most likely want to work on a three-year contract.

The 1-cent sales tax will be collected on businesses within the tourism tax district, which encompasses Branson, Indian Point village, Silver Dollar City and State Park Marina. It was approved by voters who live in the district. It's expected to raise $6 million a year.

Turner said it was encouraging to see that the tax passed with more than 58 percent of the vote. When it was presented to voters in February 2002, it failed with only 42 percent voter support.

“I was optimistically hoping we'd win by a narrow margin,” Turner said. “It surprised a lot of people.”

Turner said a lot of people deserve credit for passage, including several who manned telephones in the final days to get the word out about the tax. But much of the credit he said goes to Ann McDowell, who directed the campaign committee dedicated to getting the word out about why many felt the tax was crucial to the area's future.

“Ann ran an aggressive campaign,” Turner said.

Currently, the city of Branson collects a 4-cent sales tax on hotels and ticketed attractions and a half-cent on restaurants. That tax raises approximately $2.5 million a year that the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce uses to market the area. Turner said the additional $6 million will allow the area to reach more people more often.


“We can go wider, and we can go deeper into our markets,” he said. “Our goal is to attract more first-time visitors. We are convinced that if we can get them here, they'll keep coming back.”