Fiscal Year 2004 Proposed Budget

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
TRAVEL AND TOURISM PROMOTION FUND BUDGET SUMMARY

PROGRAM MISSION:  To accelerate the Arlington economy to add wealth, employment and quality to the community.

FY 2004 PRIORITIES:

• Position Arlington as a regional, national and international world class business and visitor location, and execute meaningful marketing activities.

• Develop private sector partnerships at all levels to maximize marketing efforts.

PRINCIPAL PROGRAMS:

Promote an image of Arlington that distinguishes it regionally, nationally and internationally as the best location in which to stay, to shop and to play in the greater Washington DC area.  This includes public relations and marketing activities as follows:

• Directing the marketing outreach to target markets.  These include marketing, product development and visitor services.  These programs are supported through extensive media outreach and electronic marketing efforts.  Media outreach works closely with media to present Arlington as a major destination in support of our targeted programs. The electronic marketing efforts include effective use of pages on Arlington's web site, promotional linkages with regional and state tourism agencies, industry associations and others. The goal is to establish Arlington as a leader in the use of electronic and digital communications technology to promote tourism, investment, and development.

• Providing visitors' services for visitors using Arlington for hotels, shopping and /or dining.  Services include the Visitors' Orientation Center, Arlington Visitors' Guide and Internet capabilities.

• Having public relations, nationally and internationally that distinguishes the unique qualities of Arlington that make the County the best location for visitors to stay.  This includes, but is not limited to, attractions, retail, restaurants, history, theatre, and nightlife.

• Participating in direct selling activities through account identification and solicitation in appropriate marketplaces with personal face to face calls, telephone solicitation, direct marketing and e-marketing as well as exhibiting at customer gatherings.

• Involving Travel and Tourism in product development discussions regarding attractions and visitor activity venues with the goal of assisting in the establishment of new activities and the sustaining of existing ones.

• Growing the Visitors' Orientation Center (VOC) to become a point of information and education on all of Arlington's visitor assets as well as those of the greater region.  Marketing the VOC to leisure visitors, business visitors, residents and workers.

SIGNIFICANT BUDGET CHANGES: The FY 2004 proposed expenditure budget for the Travel and Tourism Promotion Fund is $1,061,773 an increase of $92,320 or 10% from the FY 2003 adopted budget.

• The FY 2003 adopted budget does not include $153,012 in supplemental appropriations, fully supported by a Federal Recovery Grant approved during FY 2003. This grant continues in FY 2004 and is reflected at the projected funding level in the FY 2004 proposal. The full grant amount is $400,000, an amount that is expected to cover the original build-out, rent and related expenses in FY 2003 for the newly located Visitor's Center and following that year, the  rent and related expenses through FY 2007.

• Increase in personnel is due to reclassification of one position and normal salary increases ($57,370).

• The non-personnel increase ($34,950) is due to the effect of the grant noted above ($59,773 supporting costs for rent and other expenses relating to the visitors' center), partially offset by reduction in other expenditures based on available revenue.

• Revenue increased in the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), ($89,200).

PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

FUTURE BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS: The following will impact the Travel and Tourism Promotion Fund budget in the future:

• To successfully market Arlington as a tourist and visitor destination, funding should increase in order to expand to markets that currently receive little or no attention.

• The approval of the Conference Center Strategic Initiative along with the initiation of the 2% TOT will move the County toward an additional component of the Meetings and Conference Market that was not previously available.