Chambers seek help for visitor centers

The county's chambers of commerce want a partnership with the visitors bureau and $100,000 in county funding to help run welcome centers for tourists.

By MAUREEN BYRNE

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 5, 2000

Every day, Pinellas County tourists pop in to local welcome centers.

Their questions are endless. Where's the beach? Can you recommend a good restaurant? What's the best theme park to visit?

The 18 welcome centers, operated by the 11 chambers of commerce in Pinellas County, will continue to serve visitors this tourist season just as they have for decades.

But they want some financial help from the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. The chambers are seeking a contractual partnership with the CVB to help fund their welcome centers.

On Wednesday, the Tourist Development Council, which oversees CVB operations, will decide whether it will ask the County Commission to give $50,000 to the chambers, said Carol Ketterhagen, executive director of the CVB.

Another $50,000 has been pledged to the chambers by the county's Department of Economic Development.

The $100,000 isn't as much money as the chambers had asked for, but it is a step in the right direction, said Rick Sloan, president of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce.

The amount each chamber would receive would depend on how many hours its welcome centers are open and how many visitors they help.

Sloan is heading the effort to secure funding from the county.

"The fact is, the 11 chambers provide the most information to visitors before they get here," he said. "And we are the primary conveyor of information to visitors after they come to Pinellas County."

Sloan said the chambers deserve some of the county bed tax, which pays for the CVB's $9-million marketing budget. "From day one this partnership should have existed," he said.

The proposal calls for conformity in the welcome centers and a database of information that would include attractions, special events and businesses.

It also calls for a 13-member Visitor Center Board that would oversee the partnership. The board also would assess staffing needs, signs and welcome center locations.

"We want to look down the road to see if we can do a better job," Sloan said.

Last week, chamber officials asked for $307,500 in the first year: $235,000 to help offset costs at the welcome centers, $65,000 to implement a computer system and $7,500 for training.

Instead, the county decided to spend six months researching the welcome centers and give $100,000 to the chambers in the meantime.

"There should be a coordinated effort. There should be a partnership," Ketterhagen said. "How it develops has to be determined."

All the chambers are in favor of the proposal, except for Clearwater's. Though it isn't against the proposal, the Clearwater chamber has some concerns about it, said Mike Meidel, president of the 1,500-member Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce.

One of its biggest concerns is the accountability it would owe the county. "When they give you money, there are purse strings attached," Meidel said.

Until more details are known, Meidel said, the chamber's board is holding back on fully supporting the proposal.

Jimmy Johnson, executive director of the Greater Area Seminole Chamber of Commerce, supports Sloan's recommendations.

Although Johnson said the primary purpose of a chamber is to spur economic growth within a community, it also has the responsibility of servicing visitors.

"Our job is also to help with tourism, but we need to do that with the TDC," he said.

Charlie Phillips agrees.

"I think in order to take care of the visitor you need to get them here and service them," said Phillips, executive director of the Tarpon Springs Chamber of Commerce, which has two welcome centers. One is at the city's Sponge Docks, which has 800,000 visitors a year.

Sloan, St. Petersburg chamber's director, said the chambers have been "silent partners (with the county) all these years."

"I don't think it was intentional, but we have somehow been taken advantage of," he said.

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