Before the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce hires a new VP of Tourism, the Escambia Board of County Commissioners needs to look at how it wants to handle tourism marketing and its bed taxes. The hotels, who collect the tax, are upset. Perdido Key is upset. The Gulf Coast African-American Chamber is upset.
We’ve had a banner year in tourism, breaking records. The BP monies and TDC funds spent directly on advertising made the desired impact. The team of Schroeder-led Convention & Visitors Bureau and E.W. Bullock & Associates marketing team worked well. The statistics show it. Whether you like Schroeder and Bullock or not, they did a good job. Hizer and the Chamber administration was not a part of that success.
Tourist Development Commission chair Denis McKinnon asked the Chamber and the BCC to do a study on the governance of the CVB. I really don’t think that’s necessary. The hotels, chambers (Pensacola, Perdido, GAACC and Pensacola Beach) and TDC can make their recommendations to the BCC and the commissioners can vote on it.
Until the County Commissioners decide what they want for tourism and the CVB, the Chamber should delay hiring another VP. While the current team (let’s make it clear it’s not the Chamber system, but its tourism/CVB staff) had a very successful summer, many of the stakeholders are not happy with the overall tourism management system.
This is a BCC decision, not a Chamber one. No studies are needed. The County Commissioners need to clean up this mess.