Council not sold on tourism ads

Mayor Jim Suttle found some money in his new city budget proposal to do some betting on Omaha's draw as a tourist attraction.

In a budget year he calls difficult, Suttle wants to pump $2.2 million more into the Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau to fund a marketing campaign aimed at drawing tourists from such cities as Denver and St. Louis.

The campaign would build on an ad campaign in Kansas City and Des Moines that the visitors bureau considers a huge success.

Suttle's bet is that the $2.2 million outlay will bring back tens of millions more in tourist spending on hotels, restaurants and shopping. And every tourist dollar spent then helps pay back the outlay with new city tax revenue.

But the proposal already is facing skepticism from City Council members looking for spending cuts to offset Suttle's pitch for significant tax hikes.

Dana Markel, the visitors bureau's executive director, said the spending would be a smart investment that already has proved it can provide revenue returns to the city.

Omaha has a marketable product for tourists, Markel said, but it needs to invite people to visit.

“Unless we do that, we're not going to be top of mind,” she said.

Based on interviews with council members, the level of funding for the campaign appears to be in trouble.

Council President Garry Gernandt agreed with the need to continue promoting Omaha but said he disagreed with such a large jump in funding. Councilman Thomas Mulligan expressed a similar view.

Councilman Pete Festersen said he's leaning toward opposing the funding boost, saying that the city should be trying to hold the line on spending.

Council member Jean Stothert went furthest in her opposition, saying that she supports tourism but that the city is just too strapped to give more money to promote it.

“What we should be doing is concentrating on the basics,” she said. “I wish we could give (the Convention and Visitors Bureau) more, but right now the taxpayers are telling us, ‘Don't raise my taxes and don't give us new taxes.' ”

In total, the bureau — which was shifted from a Douglas County office to a city department in 2002 — is in line for a 66 percent increase in its budget, taking it to $5.7 million. The bureau is largely funded by hotel tax revenue but has received $500,000 from the city's general operations fund each of the last two years.

Once that funding started, the bureau used the money to begin its summer advertising effort, first in Kansas City in 2008, then adding Des Moines last year. The campaign was scaled back in both cities later in 2009 when Suttle pulled funding as part of his midyear budget cuts.

The multimedia campaign — hitting TV, radio, print and the Internet — touts the Old Market in one ad and markets to couples, girlfriends and families in three others.

“Trip to Omaha was a blast!” a girlfriend notes on an ad featuring a woman sampling a big slice of cheesecake.

“Omaha is awesome!” a boy exclaims in a TV spot putting much of its focus on the Henry Doorly Zoo.

“Omaha was the PERFECT weekend getaway,” “Mom” and “Dad” rave about their anniversary weekend that took in an art museum, botanical gardens, restaurant and a performance. “Let's ALL take a trip there next month.”

Omaha is getting its biggest response from Kansas City. The visitors bureau says a survey indicated that 204,000 people from the area had visited Omaha in the previous 12 months, which is up 56 percent from two years ago.

The bureau says 110,000 people visited from Des Moines, although it doesn't have past numbers for comparison.

Considering just the Kansas City tourists, the bureau estimates the community saw $61 million in tourism spending. That estimate assumes each visitor spent $300 while in Omaha.

Suttle cited the Kansas City results in his budget presentation to the City Council on Tuesday, arguing that he wants to attract tourists and businesses.

“We know the beauty of Omaha's affordability and accessibility,” he said. “But the more we share that message with others, the faster we generate economic growth and jobs in the private sector.”

Markel said Omaha offers the experiences — at such places as the zoo, Joslyn Art Museum and the Old Market — that people are interested in.

“But we're not telling the world about this,” she said.

If the new funding goes through, the bureau would hope to advertise in Denver, St. Louis, Iowa's Quad Cities and perhaps Chicago or Minnesota, depending on how much the ad buys cost.

Counting the new funding, Suttle wants to put a total of $2.7 million from the general fund toward the visitors bureau. In addition to broadening the marketing effort, Markel said she wants to continue the campaign in Kansas City and Des Moines.

The extra $2.2 million would originate from Suttle's proposed new 4 percent restaurant tax. However, the $23.5 million that tax is estimated to generate would largely go to underfunded police and fire pensions and other basic operating costs.

If restaurants are concerned they will lose business because of the higher tax, Markel said she feels confident the marketing effort will make up for that and more.

“There's a lucrative market out there that we really have not tapped — and that's the tourism market.”

World-Herald staff writers Maggie O'Brien and Michael O'Connor contributed to this report.

Contact the writer:

444-1128, jeff.robb@owh.com

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