By V. Hugh Lewis II, publisher
The City of Jefferson Tourism Board voted to approve joining the Texas Forest Trails Program for this year. The program offers opportunities to promote the City through various programs, webpages, and even a Jefferson Day at the Texas State Fair.
Texas Forest Trails Executive Director Del Polikretis gave the board an overview of the program at Monday night’s regular Board meeting. He outlined the program benefits and how the City can participate. The program is also open to individuals and local businesses to partner with for additional advertising and exposure opportunities.
“The Texas Forest Trail is one of 10 individual non-profit organizations throughout Texas that promote their areas. Our mission is to bring tax dollars and travelers to every county in East Texas, and provide communities with the tools, training, and professional support they need to preserve their history and successfully market their tourism sites and attractions,” Polikretis said. “We do the whole gamut and each year with have a new marketing initiative. We tend to have a big impact on the areas we service.
“One of the benefits we provide is every year with have a booth at the State Fair,” Polikretis continued. “We call them Destination Days and we separate a part of our booth and allow our Partner members to man it and bring their brochures and materials to hand out at the State Fair. These are a first-come-first-serve signup basis and they usually go pretty quickly.
“This year our Marketing Initative, We are East Texas, is focused on Social Media to drive people to East Texas and our partners and attractions,” Polikretis said. Each Partner has a page on this site and we put photos, summary of the Partner, and listings of events, attractions, blog entry, and each partner gets a 1-minute video to go with their write up that we promote online. We do it all for you.”
“We also do a photo contest each year and as a Partner Plus you are allowed to use the photos if you sponsor a $250 category,” he said. “We promote it through Instagram, and you get access tot he photos and the rights to use them. Tere’s also an essay contest for students and you can sponsor an additional scholarship prize.”
The Board voted to join at the Partner Plus level ($1,000). More information will be provided to businesses in the area for joining. Partner levels begin at $150.
Monthly Financials
Tourism collected $10,023.97 in January for November HOT revenue. Board President Coleen Taylor said at the moment no one was behind on HOT payments and that Turner’s Cottage opened and started paying in December. She continued that the Jefferson Hotel is pending sale, but since the City did not file a lien against the previous owner, all unpaid HOT would probably never be collected.
“The City collected $11,177.40 in January for December HOT revenue,” Taylor said. “That will show on our February 29, 2020, revenue report.”
Using Avenu as a collection agency for the City causes the delay in reporting and transfer of funds to the City.
As of January 31, 2020, the Board has spent $49,464.15 in advertising this fiscal year (October 1-September 30). The Board is currently 47.372% through their total expenditure budget and has generated 28.533% of their projected revenue.
KTAL Contract
The Board approved a new contract for advertising with KTAL in Shreveport. The new agreement offers almost double the advertising, adds digital advertising, and two additional special commercial production and use, for an additional cost of $298 a month. It includes 152 commercial spots instead of 64. The new contract will cost $1598 per month.
Other Business
- Board Member Ana Bode provided an update on the City Signage proposal and said the committee is preparing a package to present to the City and JEDCO for funding approval.
- Bode updated on the City acquisition of Trademarks on the City Logo in that it’s mostly paperwork and she’ll be working on that over the next several weeks.
- The Anderson Group is preparing to return to the City in early March
- Taylor reported that Visitor Center employee Danielle Eigemann has almost every month booked for the Convention Center rentals and has been fielding multiple calls daily.
The Board will meet again at 5:30 p.m. on March 9, 2020, at the Visitor’s Center.