Remodeling a house usually doesn't start with the destruction of the house.
Yet, that's what Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich has proposed for the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber and Visitors Bureau.
Willich wants to end the city's contract for marketing with the chamber and leave it to greet visitors. Then, he wants to more than double the city's marketing budget and create a brand new board with a brand new, well-paid executive director to spend it.
Willich doubled down on a recommendation from a group of independent volunteers who took a look at what ails the valley's economy.
The three-member volunteer group of marketing professionals that looked at the issue came to two major conclusions.
It concluded that the lack of luxury hotels and ski-in, ski-out lodging had left the area behind its competitors. It recommended spending a lot more on marketing with a new oversight board.
The group did not recommend destroying the chamber, but Willich's idea would.
Scapegoating the chamber may mask a lot of sins of the cities, not the least of which was taking for granted tax revenues generated by the tourist economy and failing to reinvest enough in marketing to ensure that when the recession in the travel industry abates, the area will come back strong as a vacation destination. It won't hide the truth.
Chamber representatives told the cities of Sun Valley and Ketchum year-in and year-out that they needed to invest more in marketing. Yet it wasn't until the national economy crashed and the independent volunteer committee came to the same conclusion that the cities' mayors and councils paid attention.
The chamber hired professional marketing companies to plan and execute campaigns, worked closely with Sun Valley Co. and garnered all the free publicity it could muster. City officials constantly demanded that it do more with less.
What the area is up against was illustrated when a volunteer panel member said that if a major car company wanted to "re-brand" one of its models in a national campaign, it would cost a minimum of $8 million just for creative work—not including the cost of advertising time or space.
The chamber's entire annual budget is just $1.2 million.
The cities could reasonably demand that it revamp marketing oversight to meet specific goals. But to knock down the house to accomplish a little remodeling is ridiculously shortsighted and could radiate consequences that proponents of destruction probably haven't imagined.
