Travel is form of economic development, consultant tells Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce

August 20, 2010

A travel consultant told the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday that they could improve the city's economy "one car at a time." 

"The travel industry is stealth economic development," Berkley Young of Randall Trav­el Marketing told the chamber at a Thursday breakfast meet­ing. "It comes in one car at a time."

Young said because of this leisure and business travel is an often-overlooked economic de­velopment opportunity.

He told the chamber leader­ship and invited elected officials at the breakfast that adding group tours, sports tourna­ments and other meetings can build a community's sales tax revenues quickly.

Randall Travel Marketing has acted as consultant for the chamber's Montgomery Area Convention and Visitors Bu­reau for years.

Growing travel revenue, and the associated tax dollars, means Montgomery must at­tract more visitors and entice them to spend more money in Montgomery, he said.

The city has more hotel rooms and is doing a better job of filling them, he said.

He said even though the city has constructed more than 1,700 new hotel rooms in the past few years, the city's occupancy rate is up.

"Montgomery has moved up as a destination," he said. Still, it lags behind many similar communities because of its per­ception as offering little for the traveler.

"Outside of Alabama, they have no idea what is going on in Montgomery," he said.

The average visitor to Mont­gomery spends $243 per night, leading to $16.24 in local taxes and $1.66 in revenue for the CVB. That allows the CVB to spend an average of $277 per room per year to market the city.

Young said that is lower than other cities in Alabama. Mobile spends $334, Huntsville $344 and Birmingham $482 per room per year to market those cities.

Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said the information shows that efforts to attract more visitors have a sound ba­sis.

"These numbers are why we created a sports commission," he said of the board that wishes to expand the athletic infra­structure to attract youth, high school and college sports events.

Dawn Hathcock, head of the CVB, said the presentation was to show elected leaders the im­pact of growing tourism.

"We wanted to show them where that money is going," she said. "We want them to know they have other options for in­creasing revenue."