MAHONING COUNTY Tourism bureau accents visibility

The bureau puts a premium on marketing county assets throughout the state.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Heads in beds. That's the motto of the Youngstown-Mahoning County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The visitors bureau, which is downtown in the City Centre One building, was thrust into the news recently when Mahoning County Auditor George Tablack suggested that it chip in some cash to help operate the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
The bureau is asking its lawyer for advice on whether it can legally provide operating capital for an operation like the airport.
Tablack said the bureau should be able to contribute toward the airport, even though it is in Trumbull County. He said the bureau has contributed to other Trumbull County events in the past -- most notably the LPGA golf tournament that is played there each summer.
"I know that in the past, this board has used broad discretion with its funding," Tablack said. "We're asking them to support a Trumbull County entity."
Agency's goal
The agency, which has a staff of three full-time and two part-time employees, earns its bread and butter by promoting events and sites that could draw tourists to the area, even if they're outside Mahoning County, said Atty. Lawrence Richards, bureau chairman.
"We look at it in terms of how much business it brings Mahoning County," Richards said. "If we can promote an event in Trumbull County that puts heads in beds here in Mahoning County, then that's fine."
But Richards said the bureau hasn't spent money on the golf tournament in six or seven years because most people who come to watch it live within driving distance and don't stay overnight in local motels.
Funding
The bureau gets its funding from a 3-percent lodging tax, known as a bed tax, paid by people who stay at the county's 32 hotels and motels, said Tom Lyden, executive director. Richards said the tax brings in about $450,000 a year.
Out of that comes money for office space and utilities, staff wages and benefits, materials and other related operating costs, which accounts for about 40 percent of the bureau's budget.
Lyden said, however, some of the bureau's personnel and other costs are actually considered marketing expenses. He said actual administrative costs are about 22 percent to 25 percent of the bureau's budget, with the rest going toward marketing.
He pointed to a state audit of the bureau's expenses for 2001, which showed about a 20-percent expenditure for administrative costs.
Teresa Kirkland, interim director of the Trumbull County CVB, said that's consistent with other visitors bureaus in Ohio, including Trumbull County.
The bureau generally has about a carry-over of about $25,000, depending on the amount of income generated that year. Last year, the carry-over was $33,256.
"Everything else is marketing," said Billie Jo Zimmerman, marketing director.
Strategies
A large portion of the bureau's annual budget goes toward marketing the county by traveling the state and region, promoting Mahoning County at travel shows and other events, Zimmerman said. Other marketing strategies include billboards, advertising, printed materials and promotional items. Most of the billboards promote area motels because that's where the bureau's revenue is generated.
The bureau is developing billboards that will include motel telephone numbers so motorists who are driving through the county, looking for a place to stay, can call ahead from their cellular telephone and book a room.
Richards said a study has shown that 48 percent of people who stay in local motels and hotels fall into the category of those who are driving through the area on their way somewhere else.
Lyden said the lodging business feeds other local tourism-related businesses, like restaurants and gas stations.
Besides motels, the bureau also uses billboards to promote local events, such as the Hot Rod Supernationals.
Zimmerman said the bureau publishes 65,000 visitor guides every 18 months, spotlighting Mahoning County activities and events, and promoting some of the tours offered by the bureau. She said the travel guides are distributed locally, and are placed in visitor centers all over the state.
"They're everywhere," she said.
The visitors guide is essentially reproduced on the bureau's Web site, www.YoungstownCVB.com. Last year, the Ohio Travel Association gave its Ruby Award for best Web site to the bureau.
"That was a great accomplishment for this office," Zimmerman said.
Bus tours
She said the bureau also promotes several bus tour trips to the county, to sites like Mill Creek Park and the Butler Museum of American Art. The bureau contributes $1,000 a year to each of those sites because they are such huge tourist draws.
There is a "Saints and Sinners" tour, in which tourists visit local historical churches and also are taken to Mountaineer Park, a racetrack and gaming resort in Newell, W.Va., just across the Ohio River from East Liverpool.
"That's our most popular tour," Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman said the bureau sponsored 97 overnight bus tours last year, with an average of 40 people per bus. She said there were also 45 outside tours who stayed overnight in the county while traveling between places like New York and Chicago. Each of those tours had about 50 to 55 people.
Lyden said the bureau works hard to market the area as a stopover for long tours like that because it generates revenue for motels.
Zimmerman said there is no way to measure the "leisure market" of visitors -- people who drive to the county and don't stay overnight.
Targeting locals
She said the bureau even sponsors an annual tour to familiarize local people with the attractions of the county.
"There is so much here, and people don't realize it," Zimmerman said. "The only things we don't have are a beach and an amusement park."
Zimmerman said the bureau will host the Great American Road show here this year. That's an event where visitor bureaus from all over the eastern United States set up displays and try to persuade group tours to visit their area.
Richards said that for the past few years the bureau has been saving money toward the cost of a convention center for the area. Now that Youngstown has received a federal grant for construction of a center, the bureau will probably use that money -- about $600,000 -- to help with building or marketing that facility.
bjackson@vindy.com