Tourism director recommended for OC
By DONNA RYDER
Editor
The Tennessee Legislature in 2021 made it possible for Obion County to collect an occupancy tax at places where visitors pay to spend the night, such as hotels, lodges and Airbnbs.
A stipulation of the tax is that it must be spent on tourism and tourism development in Obion County.
The county’s Tourism Development Committee hosted Steve Chandler with Chandlerthinks Thursday at the Obion County Public Library. He presented a three-year plan proposal. At the top of the list is the hiring of a full-time tourism director.
Tennessee tourism commissioner Mark Ezell was in Union City to hear the plan for future tourism growth in Obion County and to help encourage the hiring of the director. He said they believe hiring a tourism director is the best practice and the county has funding for it.
“You have to have somebody that gets up every day thinking ‘How do I find another visitor and how do I get the visitor to spend money,” Ezell said.
He said there has already been a lot of work done locally.
“We care deeply how each of our 95 counties tries to grow visitor spending in Tennessee,” the commissioner said, adding, “That visitor comes in, stays at a hotel, eats somewhere or goes to a Discovery Park or to Reelfoot Lake, spends that money and then they go home. But, they leave those taxes that help general funds, help to fund tourism efforts to get more people to come to a community. We are seeing all across Tennessee, communities that are realizing that visitors are your friend because a visitor leaves us their taxes. We don’t have to educate them. We don’t have to have healthcare for them. We don’t have to have most of the services that cost the county money.”
The commissioner added studies show visitors are “not bothered to pay an occupancy tax at the end of that bill and it is creating literally hundreds of thousand of dollars that then can be used to market more people to stay in the hotels, to visit your restaurants, to visit Discovery Park and other places that are tourism attractions, so it is a beautiful cycle, then those communities get to keep their sales tax to help their general fund.”
Ezell said the Obion County area has many wonderful assets, including Discovery Park of America, I-69 and Reelfoot Lake, which will soon be a Bill Dance Signature Lake. He said that designation will draw national exposure.
He and assistant commissioner of rural tourism and outreach Melanie Beauchamp said the state spends over $10 million communicating about its website TNVacation.com, which is set up to drive people to business or tourism pages in each county. She said the state also has workshops geared towards bringing in tourism and matching grants for local marketing.
“On the state level, our job is to inspire travel to Tennessee,” Ms. Beauchamp said.
Ezell said tourists do not think in the terms of county lines, but look at a particular attraction or a particular place and then what is available around it. In that aspect, he encourages businesses to work together to promote each other.
Chandler said the project goals and objectives set forth for them by the tourism committee were to:
• Create a three-year plan for increasing sales tax and bed tax dollars from tourism.
• Make a recommendation for allocation of budgeted dollars.
• Conduct a competitive analysis and existing asset assessment.
• Provide high level branding/marketing recommendations.
He reviewed the keys to tourism success, including product, promotion, ownership and funding. He said tourism is about “stimulating the local economy.”
Chandler agreed with the commissioner that Obion County can capitalize on the natural asset of Reelfoot Lake and its status as a Bill Dance Signature Lake. He said there are also cultural events, such as DPA’s festivals, the Banana Festival, Obion County Fall Fest, Obion County Fair and Masquerade Theatre, to help draw people here, but that overall those assets are lacking.
Other challenges, he said, were the need to create storytelling locations outside of DPA and Reelfoot Lake; getting businesses, especially restaurants, to stay open more days and for longer hours; developing more shopping opportunities; and broadening the offering of lodging assets beyond Union City and Reelfoot Lake.
He said key observations were:
• Reelfoot Lake and Discovery Park of America are the top leisure tourism assets attracting waterfowl hunters, fishermen and families.
• Hotels are being filled by some leisure, but mostly business travelers.
• Obion County lacks tourism activities outside of Reelfoot Lake and Discovery Park of America.
• Tourism is mostly seasonal: hunting and fishing season (RFL) and when school is out (DPA).
• Obion County tourism needs more focus and emphasis with all resources. Current support (in staff time and attention as well as marketing emphasis) is not adequate.
• The current overnight guest plans travel in advance, thus the need for stronger digital marketing presence.
The goals include:
• Increasing visitor spending 5 percent in year one and 10 percent per year for the next two years as reported by the state.
• Establishing benchmarks for tracking hotel occupancy and visitor overnight stays.
• Increasing hotel occupancy during off season months by 5 percent in year one and 10 percent increase over the prior year in year two and year three.
• Extending overnight stays by 30 percent over the next three years.
• Increasing sales tax generated by tourism by 20 percent over the next three years.
“For tourism to be real, it must be real,” he said, adding the county “Must have someone to own it. Must have the organizational structure to be accountable and provide direction. It must have a revenue source and funding.”
He said Chandlerthinks recommends a five phase approach: building the foundation, which includes hiring a dedicated person to focus on growing tourism; developing marketing assets; promotion; product development; and tracking and reporting.
