“and the executive team and board will be deciding later this year how those areas will be impacted.” At Visit Florida, 44 staff members were let go, sponsorships are being reviewed and participation in six inter- national shows and conferences has been cancelled. In examining ROI, Sara Sowerby Bagdadi, communications manager, Visit Florida, says, “according to the Offi ce of Economic and Demographic Research, for every $1 the state invests in Visit Florida, $2.15 in tax revenue is generated.” Van Kregten says the cuts are “very strange because we’re an export; money from outside is coming to our community without using our libraries, schools or health care system. Part of it, I think, is we all need to do a better job of explaining what tourism is. Many people don’t realize that tourism is taxi drivers, fl orists, trans- lators for conventions and restaurants. The tentacles are wide reaching.” Michele McKenzie, former CEO of the CTC, now principal at McKenzie Business Strategies, says, “Destination marketers are often called on to produce proof of ROI for marketing expenditures. This is relatively easy for sales activities, less so for destination awareness and brand building efforts. Destination brands grow in prominence, but marketers are hard pressed to prove a direct cause-and- effect relationship given the variety of factors at play. Over the last decade or so, we have seen funders shift to a proj- ect-based approach rather than boost core marketing budgets. This creates opportunities for marketers, but usually diminishes brand investment which in turn results in brand decline.” Brand value may be too esoteric a concept for politicians to understand. As to what these current cuts mean to the meeting industry, Jantine Van Kregten, director of communications for Ottawa Tourism (OT), says, “We focused on keep- ing our core marketing and sales functions and roles. The impact of these cuts on the meetings side won’t be immediately felt. Conventions later this year aren’t impacted because they were booked years ago. My colleagues on the convention side are booking hotels and conferences for 2021 and 2024. So we’re really stressing that we have to keep that momentum up. You don’t want to see a drop three years from now because of the cuts this year.” OT will still host and support research trips, but Van Kregten says, “We might have to say no to certain people who we might have liked to say yes to. It’s not that we’re completely eliminating hosting. Not at all.” Otherwise, the organization has two fewer staff and will probably reduce the number of staff—two instead of three— attending an event. Matt McNama, corporate communica- tions manager at Tourism Toronto (TT), says their board is still discussing options and nothing has yet been implemented. “I want to stress that Tourism Toronto is still in a strong position, particularly surround- ing business events.” As for hosting research and FAM trips, they remain part of TT’s 2019 strategy, 10 | Ignitemag.ca | September | October 2019 “Many people don’t realize that tourism is taxi drivers, fl orists, translators for conventions and restaurants. The tentacles are wide reaching.”
