“The destination’s promotional budget was driven by tax revenues,” says Senior Management Executive, Matthew Jones. “These capped the amount of annual growth possible. The competition enjoyed more expansive funding giving each a competitive advantage in sales and marketing campaigning.
“I used an existing economic improvement program to access an additional $4 million in incremental tax revenues to be utilized in pursuit of large sporting events, meetings and conventions. This was still a smaller development budget
Matthew Jones, Senior Management Executive
than what other cities were spending,” said Jones. Matt conceived the plan to build marketing resources by collecting a fee from every hotel room occupied in the city limits. He partnered with legislators to legalize the action through an amendment to state law.
“I then convinced more than 100 property owners to assess the charge and allow the city to collect. That was tough, believe me but the owners finally approved and then I worked with the city council and secured all final approvals,” said Jones.
Matt doubled the operating budget to $40 million by persuading city and state legislators to amend and create authorizations allowing access to government programs providing funding for destination sales and marketing. These efforts put the destination’s promotional finances on equal footing with other US locations.
Watch full video interview below.
Contact Matthew Jones via LinkedIn or his Career WebFolio.
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