Would an official Linn County Visitor Commission help?

Basic premise —
Linn County, Oregon does not have a tourism marketing and development program.

Suggestion One —

• Albany Visitor Association be contracted to provide needed tourism marketing operations for entire Linn County.

Suggestion Two —

• Linn County Tourism Coalition (LCTC) becomes a formal commission of Linn County.

Function –

1. Provide direction to tourism marketing contractor,
2. Conduct county's tourism industry strategic planning (In manner similar to Clackamas County Tourism Development Council).

Tourism marketing and strategic planning factors

Linn County has 2 highpoints —

• Albany and Albany Visitor Association, and
• Cascades outdoor and natural recreation — RV/campgrounds at county parks, forest service campgrounds, Green Peter and Foster reservoirs, and Hoodoo Ski Bowl.

Tourism Resources Survey for Linn County

Tourism Marketing Resources and Funding for Linn County

State supported marketing & development —

• Minimal
• Some state bed tax monies benefit Linn County tourism through !% state bed tax funds given to Willamette Valley Visitor Association (WVVA).

WVVA’s marketing focus —

• Does not really include Linn County.
• WVVA marketing focus is “Wine Country Oregon” — Southern valley – Lane County/Eugene, along Willamette River – Corvallis/Benton County & Albany, Salem/Marion County, Yamhill County, and Clackamss County.
• WVVA’s mission (from WVVA’s website – Oregon Wine Country)
  “The Willamette Valley Visitors Association is a private, non-profit organization that supports travel and tourism in the Willamette Valley. Compromised of six visitors associations, the Willamette Valley Visitors Association works to maintain the Willamette Valley as Oregon’s premier wine destination.”
• WVVA’s six members are — CVALCO (Lane County),Salem/Marion County CVB, Corvallis CVB, Albany VA, Clackamas County Tourism Development Council, and Yamhill County Association.

Oregon Tourist Commission (OTC) —

• OTC does not strongly support all state lodging businesses — OTC does not have a basic list of all state lodging facilities on its Travel Oregon website. —
• Yet all these business pay a 1% state transient occupancy tax. This additional income jumped the OTC-state budget from 47^th nationally (pre 2004) to somewhere in the middle (25^th or 26^th).
• Nearby state visitor office official websites have most respective state lodging listings on official state visitor websites — Lodging business in Idaho, Colorado, Washington, Montana have such free or minimal marketing support from respective state tourism marketing offices.
• OTC only lists selected lodging businesses — Only if lodging businesses are members of Oregon Lodging Association (OLA).

Linn County Tourism Association —

• Does not exist. No county-wide tourism association exists — there is no official, county supported, county funded tourism marketing and development association.
• AVA does most of county-wide marketing.,
• Linn County Tourism Coalition (LCTC)— An informal group which has been inactive for a year and has no funding nor official mandate.