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Representatives of the local tourism and business sector showed up to today’s Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting to urge the board to preserve the county’s relationship with the Humboldt County Visitors Bureau (HCVB) or risk adverse impacts to the local tourism industry and economy.

Following nearly three hours of deliberation, the Board of Supervisors agreed to wait until May 2024 before making any changes to its contractual agreement with the HCVB to provide more time for the Tourism and Travel Ad Hoc Committee time to reevaluate the county’s tourism assets and discuss the issue with local municipalities.

The board approved the formation of an ad hoc committee back in October 2022 to oversee some of the revenues and expenditures associated with the visitors bureau, which is funded through the county’s Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), and look for ways to improve the county’s overall travel and tourism marketing strategy. The ad hoc committee’s report, presented during today’s meeting, expressed “concern for the HCBV’s use of county funding” and questioned whether the bureau was capable of fulfilling its agreement with the county. 

“The agreement covers tourism and marketing services with a total payable amount equal to 18% of TOT received by the county annually from July 18, 2018, through June 30, 2024,” according to the staff report. Of the TOT paid to the HCVB under the agreement, 42 percent passes through “gateway organizations,” including the Southern Humboldt Visitor’s Bureau (SHBVB) and the Arcata, Garberville, Orick and Willow Creek chambers of commerce.

Adair | Screenshot

A significant portion of the HCBV’s allotment is “eaten up” after the gateway organizations get their piece of the pie, said Economic Development Director Scott Adair. Most of the funding covers rent, utilities and staff salaries, leaving “very little funding to actually perform an efficient and effective marketing campaign for Humboldt County.” 

The ad hoc offered up two potential solutions to address the HCVB’s financial issues: Allocate additional funding to the organization or terminate its marketing contract with the county and develop a new marketing fund.

“It’s important to identify and recognize that HCVB is the lead agency charged by your board with the overall success or failure of marketing, travel and tourism initiatives in Humboldt County,” Adair told the board. “It’s important to state that what we’re discussing today is not about the who; this is about a programmatic decision that sits before your board.”

Speaking during the public comment portion of today’s meeting, HCVB Executive Director Julie Benbow sought to “clarify – on record – some misinformation presented” in the staff report, which, she said, focused on the bureau’s shortcomings “without acknowledging the tremendous national and international marketing successes that we’ve accomplished with a small budget … .”

Benbow | Screenshot

“In 2022, travel-related spending brought in half a billion dollars to the county – over $49 million in tax revenue into the General Funds,” Benbow said. “Tourism is the only consistent, non-resident source of revenue coming into the General Fund. If the [HCVB] is defunded, there would be a critical adverse effect on revenue and loss of support from businesses throughout the county. … We urge the Board of Supervisors to increase funding and not endanger the quality of life for the people of Humboldt County.”

Several others echoed Benbow’s comments, including Marc Rowley, a former HCVB board member, who urged the board to seek more information from tourism industry experts before deciding on the matter. He also asked for more collaboration between the HCVB and the Humboldt Lodging Alliance (HLA). “Those are your travel professionals,” he said.

Similarly, Alex Stillman, local mover and shaker and Arcata City Councilmember, urged the board to think about the tourism industry as a whole rather than several separate components. 

“I don’t know how to pull it all together,” she admitted. “We’ve always had tourism. We have gone through many other things … where we’ve had fisheries and lumber and so forth, but we’ve always had tourism. I think it’s one of [the] most [important] economic development tools that we can have.”

Early on in the board’s discussion, Fifth District Supervisor and Board Chair Steve Madrone suggested the board table the discussion and do some more research before deciding on the matter. 

“I think no matter what we’ve got more work to do and I think we need to keep the ad hoc working together to bring forward some more concise recommendations,” Madrone said. “We’ve got some good ones here today, but I don’t know that we’re gonna get all this resolved. … I think we’re going to need to reevaluate the gateways and where that money goes and how that works.”

Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson emphasized the importance of adopting modern tourism marketing strategies. “We’re really talking about the future,” he said. “Where we came from is some relevance but really, it’s about the future. It’s about the future of what people want to do. It’s about the future [of] how people communicate and receive information and how we direct that.”

Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell noted that today’s discussion was not meant to determine whether or not the HCVB has done a good job at marketing, but whether the bureau has adhered to its contractual obligations with the county. 

“If we’re not going to hold people to contracts that are signed, then we need to rework those contracts,” she said. “I think it’s super important that we, as an organization, hold people to that and if it’s not working, it’s adjustable. Let’s sit down at the table with them and go over the contract and figure out why it’s not working or why it’s not achievable.”

Bushnell made a motion to return to the subject in six months to allow time for staff and the ad hoc committee to go over the county’s contract with the HCVB. She also requested that the ad hoc committee discuss the county’s marketing strategies with gateway organizations. Madrone seconded the action.

After a bit of additional discussion, the motion passed 5-0.