Marie Young convinced her fellow county commissioners to delay approving the allocation of the $4.38 million of BP funds that was established by Escambia Tourist Development Council after the TDC had met for six hours and reviewed 35 applications for the funds.
Why? Because no funds were recommended for African-American companies or groups.
What Young fails to understand is the funds aren’t about throwing parties and concerts for locals, but are for bringing tourists—with their out-of-town dollars— to the county. This shouldn’t be made into a race issue—it’s an economic issue.
The largest chunk of the money goes to VisitPensacola and Convention & Visitor Information Bureau ($2,463,694), which are run by the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, because they are our primary tourism marketing programs. They aren’t marketing to solely white tourists. The Perdido Key Chamber ($940,084) leads the efforts for their area.
DeLuna Fest ($546,342) is a major outdoor concert that we all hope will match the success of Hangout Fest–the Orange Beach, Ala. event that has sold out (35,000 tickets) and filled every hotel and condo in south Baldwin County this weekend. Hangout Fest was given $1.5 million in BP Tourism money.
Pensacola Sports Association ($180,703) puts on sports events that attracts athletes -regardless of race and gender-to the area.
The remaining funds are divided as follows:
- Pensacola Mardi Gras Inc., $120,000
- MWP Pensacola Events, $36,000
- Pensacola Beach Chamber of Commerce, $26,000
- Community Redevelopment Agency’s Pelican Drop, $25,000
- Pensacola Songwriters Festival, $25,000
- Pensacola Seafood Festival, $16,000
- Pensacola Big Game Fishing Club, $6,000
I think an argument could be made that these last seven events and groups don’t necessarily put “heads in beds”—meaning a tourist isn’t going to come to the area because of these and spend the night in a hotel or condo.
Commissioner Grover Robinson has recommended taking $100K each from the Pensacola and Perdido Key chambers and giving it to a African-American music promoter to create a new event.
I would recommend that the $254,000 from this seven events be split between VisitPensacola & CVB and DeLuna Fest—they have the best chances of attracting more tourists to our area and thereby helping our economy. I would include the PSA, but if we divide the funds further, then we dilute their impact.
Drop the political games, quit looking at the BP funds as a way to throw parties for locals and focus on bringing more tourists to our area.