A not-yet-existent marketing board has received much attention during the past couple of weeks, being seen by many as the possible kick-start that Sun Valley and Ketchum's economy needs. But it has also been catching heat for its proposed effect on the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors' Bureau, which wouldn't be involved with the board and would lose at least half its budget to it.
Sun Valley's and Ketchum's mayors have developed an amended plan—released Monday—suggesting the marketing board not only handle all the area's tourism marketing efforts, but also absorb the visitors' bureau's other functions—event planning and visitor services/satisfaction.
The organization would start with a five-member marketing board. Each mayor would choose a city representative, Sun Valley Resort would also have a member, and two members would be chosen at large from the community. This board would then hire and oversee a chief marketing officer in charge of all marketing operations.
This hasn't changed from the Sun Valley Resort Area Marketing Committee's suggestion on May 18. The committee was assembled to analyze the resort area's struggling economy and come up with ways to reinvigorate marketing Sun Valley.
The new twist from the mayors is that the chief officer would also oversee the current visitors' bureau. But the chamber and "business-support activities" within the bureau would no longer exist.
"It is expected that the Ketchum/Sun Valley business community will form a separate chamber of commerce for this purpose," the mayors stated in the news release.
Currently, the chamber's business members pay a total of about $120,000 in dues to the chamber. With the bureau no longer including a chamber, that membership money would be lost. But both mayors have proposed that each city give $400,000 to the new marketing effort. A $255,000 grant given to the chamber for the current fiscal year by the Idaho Travel Council for marketing would be passed to the marketing board. The resulting $1.1 million annual budget would be used by the chief officer for both marketing and the visitors' bureau.
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The committee's proposal, on the other hand, suggested taking the visitors' bureau's current $1.2 million budget and splitting it down the middle, with the bureau limiting its focus to visitor satisfaction. The marketing board would be completely separate and receive the other half of the $1.2 million budget. The committee recommended that the board be given $400,000 a year for the next three years on top of the $600,000. This would require a total annual budget of $1.8 million for the board and visitors' bureau.
But the mayors' proposal outlines a $1.1 million total for the combined marketing board and visitors' bureau. The chief officer would be tasked with dividing the money between marketing and visitors' services to get the job done.
Sun Valley City Councilman Bob Youngman, who formed the marketing committee, said during a council meeting Monday that at least 65 percent of the money must go directly to advertising Sun Valley to the world.
If the marketing board receives $1.1 million, visitor services would receive $420,000 at most, far from the current bureau's $1.2 million budget.
Carol Waller, the chamber's executive director, said the visitors' bureau currently consists of the equivalent of eight full-time employees. Will that number dwindle if the mayors' plan follows through?
"That's a big unknown," Waller said in an interview.
She's also expressed concern about losing business memberships. She said the businesses not only pay dues but help plan events.
"If we're going to be a partnership as a community, that includes the business community," she said. "They're an important part of what makes this place tick."
At this time, the mayors' proposal is just that. They need city councils' approval to hand over $400,000 each. Ketchum City Councilman Larry Helzel was at Sun Valley's Monday meeting and said he supports the idea but can't speak for his three fellow council members. Nevertheless, he said, the Ketchum council would debate it very soon, possibly at its June 21 meeting.
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
