Editor’s note: This commentary is by Lynn Barrett, who is publisher of Vermont Arts & Living, editor of Okemo Valley Magazine, and president of Primetime Concepts Inc.
Vermont — especially Southern Vermont — has everything people are looking for. They just don’t know it exists, and they don’t even really know where it is.
How can we get the region to become top of mind?
Amy Spear, vice president of tourism for the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, has called for a $500,000 increase in the state budget for tourism — not unreasonable, considering that visitors spend $2.5 billion in our state every year. Yet state spending has fallen 6% over the last five years, she reports, with only $2 million for destination marketing.
Perhaps to fill some of this void, groups in both Bennington and Brattleboro have convinced their respective town governments to fund their own marketing campaigns to entice more visitors. Last March, Brattleboro’s Representative Town Meeting backed the marketing effort when it voted to fund the project using a portion of the revenue the town collected from the 1% rooms & meals local options tax. Bennington is seeking to do the same.
About 10 years ago the state created regional marketing organizations – “marketing partnerships made up of one or more Chambers of Commerce for the benefit of all businesses and organizations in a region who want to market themselves.” There were 12 RMOs throughout the state.
The RMOs were linked to and partially supported financially by the state of Vermont marketing activities. The Community Block Grant Program provided each RMO with grant money to leverage private funding to be used for specific initiatives outlined in a regional grant agreement.
RMOs established toll-free response lines, regional websites, lure publications and vacation packages in which businesses, even non-chamber members, were invited to participate.
As facilitator for the Southern Vermont RMO, and as a public relations professional, I can say that the PR and economic benefits of working together with the state as a partner worked. Were there problems, sure.
After three years of the program the state wanted to kill it. In a letter to Gov. Jim Douglas, the Southern Vermont region pleaded its case.
“Southern Vermont alone – through its regional Web site, lure piece, public relations outreach, toll free number and fulfillment, and partnering with the State – reaches hundreds of thousands of potential visitors, homeowners, entrepreneurs, second home owners, and businesses everyday with a branded message. Never before in the history of our region has this been feasible, possible or practical. It was all made possible three years ago when the RMO system was put into place.
“We can’t afford to lose this momentum – nor the great initiatives that have been created and implemented around the State.”
The RMO program was adjusted but eventually was killed by Gov. Peter Shumlin.
While it is really encouraging that Bennington and Brattleboro are working hard to boost destination tourism and that the Vermont Chamber is fighting for increased funding, it is curious that the towns, chambers, and other economic development entities in Southern Vermont don’t all get together, pool some money, bring in some public and private sector partners, and develop an umbrella brand for Southern Vermont to promote the entire region.
This wouldn’t mean giving up each town’s respective marketing efforts, but a destination marketing campaign for Southern Vermont would help enhance these more narrowly focused efforts, perhaps by marketing and promoting Southern Vermont’s cultural attractions, as well as the area’s artisans’ goods and services.
Such a regional campaign, with a global, national and regional target market, would also boost those regions that can’t afford such campaigns — arguably because their local economies could sorely use some of these economic benefits.
I would be remiss not to mention that the development credit corporations in Southern Vermont are working together to promote workforce development and relocation, which is a great step among other meaningful economic programs and outreach under the umbrella of Southern Vermont. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Individual local efforts to cultivate tourism hold so much promise, and increased state tourism funding could extend and amplify those efforts. But with collaboration and support between and among local entities with the state as a partner, we could do so much more with the money we have and the funds we have yet to raise.
As Amy Spear says, “It’s time to work together.”
