Study: Tourism approach effective, needs more cash

Leisure travelers influenced by advertising spent an estimated $52.6 million in Franklin County in 1999, a sliver of the nearly $5 billion leisure travelers dropped in the county that year.But each $1 spent on advertising generated one additional trip and $175 in spending, according to a benchmark report on the economic impact of tourism in the Columbus area.

The $300,000 in the tourism advertising budget of the Greater Columbus Convention & Visitors Bureau compares poorly to other cities, said Tom Curtis, the study's lead researcher.

"If you want to seriously influence the potential of the tourism market, you have to spend more than that," said Curtis, a vice president of Longwoods International, a marketing researcher based in Toronto.

The Convention & Visitors Bureau will use the Longwoods study to bolster its long-standing efforts to increase the tourism marketing budget, said Kari Kauffman, director of tourism for the bureau.

Kauffman said the advertising produced a healthy return on investment of one trip per $1 spent.

"It doesn't cost a lot of money to generate more spending in our community," she said. "We think the report talked of the success of our advertising campaign."

For many years, the bureau has sought additional money from the city of Columbus for proceeds from the city's bed tax of 15.75 percent, which includes a state sales tax of 5.75 percent.

The city's portion of the tax generated $24.6 million for city tax revenue last year. Half the revenue supports the Greater Columbus Convention Center, with the bureau typically getting about 36 percent of the remaining proceeds, according to Brent LaLonde, a bureau spokesman. The rest goes to the Greater Columbus Arts Council, general services and emergency human services.

Franklin County also gives the bureau $250,000 a year, but increased its allocation this year to $500,000.

The bureau is expected to make a case for increased funding, including for tourism marketing, during city budget hearings next September.