Published: January 06, 2009 11:42 am      

Where does tourism promotion funding go?

Editor’s note: This letter to the Allegany County Commissioners was released to the Times-News for publication:

Dear Commissioners:

Articles and letters about tourism that have appeared in the Cumberland Times-News recently clearly establish that there are varying opinions on the value of tourism to Allegany County. Personally, I believe tourism plays an important role in the county’s economy.

A topic that hasn’t received much attention, however, is the cost of promoting tourism in Allegany County. Frankly, that’s something I’d like to hear more about. Maybe others would, too.

Looking at the reports that county government prepares, I see that the county’s hotel/motel tax generated $984,422 in fiscal year 2008, an increase of 7.3 percent compared to 2007.

Presumably, this is the revenue that is supposed to be used to promote tourism, since it’s the only revenue source identified in the report.

After paying the fees to collect the tax ($16,274), and after accounting for distributions to Cumberland ($135,973) and Frostburg ($167,536), and appropriations to the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad ($170,000), the Allegheny Highlands Trail ($102,644), and Community Promotions ($8,600), $383,395 was left for the Tourism Department.

Yet, the total expenses of the Tourism Department were $535,765, an overrun of $152,370. This is in addition to an overrun of $228,015 for the 2007 fiscal year.

Where did the money to pay these overruns come from? Did it come out of the county’s general budget?

What exactly is the Tourism Department? Who is in the Tourism Department? What are we getting for $536,000? Where does the money go?

For starters, using round numbers, employee salaries and benefits in fiscal 2008 amounted to $75,000.

According to the report, the Chamber of Commerce received $110,000 as a management fee.

Almost $29,000 was spent on things like telephone, postage, rent, subscriptions, dues and travel, and $37,000 is identified in the report as computer expenses.

That leaves $285,000 that was spent on what is described as “advertising professional services” and “advertising, promotion and distribution.” What was this spent on?

Was it spent on Internet promotion — Web site design and maintenance? Advertising in magazines and newspapers? If so, which ones? And when?

When I open magazines that are full of tourism ads, I often see the state of Maryland being promoted, and other counties and cities being advertised. Rarely, if ever, do I see ads for Cumberland or Allegany County.

Was the money used to defray costs associated with events such as Cumberland Goes to War?

Or maybe the hill climb in Flintstone earlier this year, or some antique car rallies? What are the costs and what revenue is realized from such events?

As it stands now, there isn’t any real accountability with respect to these funds, which amount to more than a quarter of a million dollars.

We don’t know who is disbursing them, we don’t know where they’re going, and we don’t know what they’re being spent on. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know what we’re getting out of all this?

We keep getting the message that tourism is great in Allegany County. But we’re given no substantive information to support that claim. A quarter of a million dollars is a huge amount of tax dollars for any entity to spend without accountability.

Perhaps the county can provide a detailed report on where the money has gone and what it has accomplished, including ad space purchased, cost of ads produced, summary of Web site costs, etc.

This needs to be done before a new tourism management contract is awarded at the end of this fiscal year.

Such a move would go a long way toward reassuring the public that these tax dollars are being spent effectively.

Dale Sams

Cumberland