Thursday, March 28, 2024

Council considers 2018 budget request for LAP

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The Leavenworth Area Promotions committee or LAP has requested $644,000 for next year. This represents an increase of $58,000 over last year’s budget of 586,000. LAP Committee member Jessica Stoller said they based their request on the anticipated increase in lodging tax revenue. 

“We look at the lodging tax budget and look at the growth. We based it on what we think is solid 10 percent growth. We attribute that to the efforts we do, increasing lodging tax and sales tax,” Stoller said at the Nov. 14 city council study session.

In 2017, Stoller said they saw certain growth in the website traffic. Their social media growth was impressive. They did a national campaign with the Matador Network, which has 3-million visitors a month. She said they did a series of articles with them. 

“Digital is something that has grown in our plan every year, although our plan is diverse. We still believe TV and print has value. We have opportunities that come up, like the pop up event with the Alpen Horns all over Seattle,” Stoller said. “Those kinds of opportunities don’t come up in the planning, they come up during the year, so we want to have those funds available. People present to us all the time. When we see value and have the funding, we’ll do that.”

Mayor Cheri Kelley Farivar asked if there were any statistics that illustrate the online presence. Stoller said they follow a lot of studies and see that a balance in marketing is the safest way to go. 

“We have increased digital significantly over the pass four or five years, but we haven’t gotten rid of the standard media in our packet,” Stoller said. 

LAP Committee member, Bill Forhan, Leavenworth Echo publisher, said it is a tough decision to make. 

“Everybody talks about getting stats on your click-throughs. The national click-through rate is 1/100th or a percent or 2/100ths of a percent,” Forhan said. “The problem with that is, you’re looking at a huge market. What happens locally is where you have to try and figure out what is happening.”

At the Echo, Forhan said the digital subscribers are running three to four times the print subscribers and its growing. 

“There is an increasing demand by the public to get their information digitally, so you need a media mix. The tricky balance that we are struggling with is, what is the right mix? You can’t abandoned the old stuff,” Forhan said. “Our own research said you can’t abandon print. Sixty one percent of the people doing travel still get their information first from a print product. It’s really tricky balancing, trying to reach all the people you’re trying to reach.”

Councilwoman Margaret Neighbors asked if they had any other metrics. Stoller said they can track the digital work because they put a code on the website. She said they just did November Military Month, which showed website traffic was up 20 percent in November. 

Does that translate to 20 percent more people coming to town?, Neighbors asked. 

“The internet has created so much more opportunity to get the word out. It has diluted the chance to have the focused message like we’ve done before. You could spend three times as much money. The other side of that coin is now we have a national voice,” said Nancy Smith, Leavenworth Chamber executive director. “Other than people writing about us before, our voice was to the Pacific Northwest. We have a national voice as well as a local voice in this field. There is no end to where you can spend money now.”

Smith said they read the statistics, weigh each of the campaigns based on click-throughs. They study the traveller, use PR people to find out what is happening in the market and use all that information to make those decisions on the (advertising) balance which is before the council.  

Stoller said they used to do straight up banner ads, but they did not perform like they would like. Now, they are doing a banner advertising on the video work, which is performing stronger. 

“It’s also about articles that look like articles, but is advertising sponsored by us. It’s the kind of content people are trying to get,” Stoller said. “We did meet, like we do every year, and we decided to focus on boosting our Instagram and Twitter. We had put most of our ads into Facebook, a little into Instagram. We wanted in 2018 to spend more time having Icicle TV do those pieces for us.”

Councilwoman Sharon Waters posed a question that prompted many responses. 

“What do I tell people? I hear it increasingly more. How much is too much? For advertising, for bringing people to town. Some people say, why do you promote so much? Do we need more people coming?,” Waters asked. 

Smith said they weigh that, because this is our community. She said they have worked hard at balancing the guests in terms of who comes here and who they’re attacking. 

“We look toward the baby boomer generation and maybe some millennials to do some mid-week experiences, hoping to encourage a detraction from the more heavy weekends. Sharon, that is really a question, instead of having with the promotions group, is to have the business community,” Smith said. “I think they would be the best at saying where the balance is, here’s what we think is too much. There are so many nuances with that. Rather than a conversation with the promotions folks, it’s really a conversation with your community, I think.”

It’s important to note, Farivar said, the chamber has stopped advertising for Christmas Lighting because they’ve reached capacity-plus. The advertising is focused on other times of the year that are not packed to capacity. 

The mantra for the LAP Committee is Sunday-to-Thursday, not the weekends, said Gary Thebault, LAP Committee member. 

“We don’t want to promote anything for weekends because we don’t feel we need the assistance there. We’re not promoting more traffic on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Thebault said. “I’ve been here for 10 years. November was hideous when we came here. I don’t know anyone that has broke even. November has doubled since we’ve been here.”

Tourism is the economic driver of Leavenworth, said City Administrator Joel Walinski. 

“The reason they continue to increase (the LAP budget) is because business needs to grow. It’s the  tourism industry. It’s not just one business. It’s a multitude of small businesses. In order for them to grow, you have to do the advertisement because it is the tourism business,” Walinski said. “If we were in a different town with a different economic driver, but in this town, what works well and has been successful is the tourism. It’s necessary for the town to continue to succeed.”

Walinski said infrastructure is needed to support tourism. He noted that lodging tax dollars can be used not just for promotions, but also infrastructure to support tourism. The question for the council, he said, is where to put those dollars. 

Smith said they would be open to bring in some lodging partners, who collect the funds, to brainstorm with the council. Councilman Elmer Larsen said the city needs to start putting a portion of the lodging tax funds aside to support capital projects. 

Councilwoman Carolyn Wilson asked how much advertising is done for recreation. 

“When I first arrived here, they did not allow for any advertising outside the downtown core. That was the rule. When we tried to encourage a longer stay for families, they started allowing us to do more with augmenting the experience downtown, i.e., our arts, recreation, wine tasting,” Smith said. “That was in an effort to elongate the stay. We were trying to get away from day trippers and into a longer base stay. There is ongoing discussions with the Port and County on trail development because we have a lot of opportunity there.”

Farivar said the city has an opportunity to add new restrooms at the new Link Transit Park and Ride by Safeway. She said that is another potential for infrastructure, not just in the downtown. 

“We have to have money available to purchase these things. You talk about a balancing in advertising. We need a balance in capital improvements and advertising,” Farivar said. “That is the city’s job. What do we as a city needs to support tourism by way of infrastructure, parking, restrooms, traffic control. Do that instead of putting all the money into advertising. Once those people get here, where are they going to bathroom? Where are they going to park?”

“We recognize that using some lodging tax dollars for improvements is appropriate, but we want to remind the council the sales tax is tourist related too. There can be a balance in that,” Smith said. 

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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