CityBeat - Heard on the street
newsanalysis By Tony Seaton
Huntingtonnews.net writer/producer
Huntington City Councilman Cal Kent says he's apparently become the 'point man' on the issue of whether to raise the hotel/motel tax in the city and give half of the proceeds to the Visitors and Convention Bureau.
So, as that point man, he wants to know what the CVB is doing with all the money it already receives from the city. Council has yet to see their final budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The CVB's current budget is $338,000 and it would receive another $90,000 from the city if the hotel tax is increased.
Many members of council are taking a closer look at the CVB as a result.
In prior meetings with council, Garry Krueger, the CVB's director for some 20 years, says he and his director of sales and marketing, Craig Warner, do a lot of traveling. They frequent national tourism events where they hobnob with CVB directors from other cities and tourism package promoters. Krueger recently told council that if they got that big budget boost, they'd concentrate less on travel and more on Internet advertising, among other things.
They already do some Internet, though. But their website, http://wvvisit.org/ fails to mention that Allegiant Air now offers non-stop direct jet service from Huntington Tri-State Airport to the Orlando area, a very popular tourism spot itself, and one on which Krueger says they'll concentrate. They might think closer to home first.
In a promotional video on the Cabell Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau site, Pullman Square doesn't exist, Pullman Plaza is still the Radisson, and Heritage Station is not yet Boston Beanery.
Besides the obvious need to update their current Internet advertising, among other goals for tourism, Councilman Kent says he'd like to see the bureau concentrate on the Ohio River among other attractions.. For instance, he says the Delta Queen's return to the river city would be a worthy goal.
