Promoting tourism in Indiana: stand-alone agency is a great step. Budget needs a boost.

• Author: Fowler, Marilee
• Position: VIEWPOINT

ACCORDING TO A STUDY issued by the Purdue University School of Consumer and Family Sciences in 2005, tourism is a $6.7 billion, specialized economic-development initiative in Indiana.

Tourism dollars support existing businesses and the future growth of the hospitality industry, as well as continued community development that satisfies the quality-of-life factor all cities strive to attain. All members of Association of Indiana Convention and Visitors Bureaus recognize the value of this vital economic element for their respective communities. As a united organization, we focus our efforts on projects that promote the industry and protect the funds dedicated to it.

AICVB lobbyists work with legislators throughout the year to keep them informed about issues that we feel are necessary to our sustainability. We were successful in convincing the political powers that the state Office of Tourism should be established as a stand-alone agency. The funding was not what we had hoped, but we plan to pursue that issue in the next session.

We are currently creating our platform regarding our recommendations to increase the budget through initiatives that will create incentives for tourism product developers in the public and private sector. Other states have been successful in this approach by returning one percent of the sales tax collected from these tourism sites to the developer.

As a proactive organization, AICVB is the leader for the profession of destination marketing. As such, we do much within the organization to educate our members on trends within the industry Each of us is able to take this information back to our bureaus to implement them on the local level.

For us, it is imperative that we maintain funding for our destinations. Most bureaus of size allocate a percentage or set amount of the funds received from the innkeepers' tax to what we refer to as "bricks and mortar" development. In our communities, we use this to build the attractions visitors and residents alike enjoy. We build and/or...