[OMS_MANAGERS] TLT Project Allowances

[Megan Dompe]

Hi Branden!

I can help with this one. A lot of our funding comes from TLT. We use it to
fund major events in town and our community newsletter. Our events are a
big draw to Coburg and we advertise our events further than 50 miles away,
but we also advertise them within 50 miles as well and it comes out of that
same budget - for how we advertise it is all part of the same large area
being covered (Lane County is huge so even if we are solely advertising
with our local news, it reaches further than 50 miles). Our new newsletter
doubles as a visitors guide and it is definitely used by our community
first, and then tourists - but it serves as both. Tourism promotion is not
nearly as linear as most assume. In fact in the 2025 legislative sessions,
they are more clearly defining what tourism promotion is and a lot falls
within common projects and programming within Main Street programs.

Tourism in Oregon has shifted to a stewardship approach and a big swing to
regenerative practices so that Destination management organizations are
serving the communities rather than having a traditional "heads in beds"
approach to gaining more tax revenue. Main Street programs are actually
perfect to be taking on the role of DMO in their communities for this
reason- built into our foundation is preservation and community in addition
to economic development. Travel Oregon and Oregon Destination Association
are both great organizations to reach out to. The Destination Stewardship
department of Travel Oregon is where I would start. They can absolutely
help you with clearly defining what constitutes tourism promotion and my
guess is their answer will probably surprise those naysayers on your city
council.

Here is the link to Destination Stewardship Department at Travel Oregon -
https://industry.traveloregon.com/about/teams/destinationstewardship/

There is also an awesome report on Rehabilitating Tourism that was put
together by Willamette Valley Visitors Association. It's a really great
read about the direction of tourism, especially in agritourism/rural areas,
and all the ways you can apply that to your program. Here is the link -
https://www.willamettevalley.org/regenerative-sustainable-travel

It may also be worth it to watch the next Oregon Tourism Commission meeting
coming up as I believe they will be covering a large portion of how
the state will be redefining tourism promotion. Those are always a really
great way of staying in the know and seeing what can be applied to your
Main Street Program.
https://industry.traveloregon.com/about/oregon-tourism-commission/commission-meetings/

Please feel free to reach out to me with more questions! I work a lot with
those agencies.

Here are a few place
Megan Dompe
Director of Coburg Main Street
PO Box 2875
Coburg, Oregon 97408
(541)913-6570

"Start where you are,
Use what you have,
Do what you can."
- Arthur Ashe
[image: Outlook-oqfl5f5k.png]


On Tue, Feb 4, 2025 at 10:38 AM Executive Director, NDC <
exec at newbergdowntown.org> wrote:

> Hi OMS partners,
>
> The Newberg Downtown Coalition has struggled with consistent
> financing since the COVID-19 pandemic. We've been exploring unique ways to
> source consistent funding, and the idea of Transient Lodging Tax (TLT)
> dollars came up. It seems like we have a majority of city councilors who
> would be in favor of us securing some of those dollars, given we can make a
> case for those dollars promoting tourism in our town. The opposition is
> saying that tourism dollars need to be spent getting people to come visit
> externally (they're mostly spending on external advertising), but we're
> arguing that we need to spend a small portion in town to help improve our
> district and make it a more desirable place to visit.
>
> I wanted to see if anyone out there is receiving TLT dollars and, if so,
> how they're spending it or reporting the expenses that align with the
> purpose of the fund.
>
> Any help, advice, or insight is appreciated!
>
> *Branden Andersen*
> *Executive Director, Newberg Downtown Coalition*
> newbergdowntown.org
>
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