A Times analysis of how Northwest Indiana's visitors bureaus focus their efforts shows they are hardly in lockstep. That needs to be rectified.
The boards of the tourism bureaus in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties should get together -- without their hired staffs -- and discuss their common interests so they can iron out their differences.
In Lake and LaPorte counties, the tourism agencies spend their money promoting the biggest tourist draws, including the casinos, and in attracting conventions and sports events.
The Porter County Convention, Recreation and Visitor Commission, on the other hand, is a county agency forced by the County Council to spend about 6.5 percent of its budget on four county-owned venues every year. The Porter County Expo Center and Fairgrounds, Parks and Recreation Department, Memorial Opera House and Porter County Museum are all worthy of financial support, but not through the tourism bureau.
State law requires the tourism bureau's money to be spent on promotion-related activities and advertising. Officials at all four venues say they spend that money, in part, on advertising, promotion of shows and other programs.
In contrast, the Lake and LaPorte tourism dollars are focused more clearly on bringing outsiders' dollars to the region's logical tourism venues.
In Lake County, South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Speros Batistatos says his staff's mission is clear: "heads in beds and cheeks in seats." That is indeed what it's all about.
The South Shore sales team fills 6,000 to 10,000 Radisson Hotel rooms in Merrillville every year, said Michael Williams, the hotel's vice president and general manager. Those are the results necessary throughout the region.
Batistatos can be brash, but he's right about the need for the three tourism bureaus to merge in order to operate more efficiently.
Both the LaPorte County Convention and Visitors Bureau and its Lake County counterpart have staff focused on luring sporting events and conventions. Why should they compete?
The visitor coming to Northwest Indiana doesn't care about county lines and political turf wars. The visitor simply wants to know where to spend the night, where to go for fun, where to go for work and what attractions the entire region has to offer.
Yet tourism bureaus in Porter, LaPorte, Harrison, Hendricks and Hamilton counties have spent a combined $20,000 this year to fight any legislation allowing a "hostile takeover" of smaller bureaus by urban counterparts.
It is wasted money not just because it is being diverted from promoting tourism but also because mergers for greater efficiency make sense.
Visitors spent nearly $1.4 billion in the three counties in 2004. That's outside money brought in to pump up the local economy. That amount should grow.
By competing with each other, the three tourism bureaus in Northwest Indiana are offering a weaker effort than they could if they merge.
We understand the skepticism and nervousness about losing their identity. By meeting without their staffs, the boards should address their trust issues, get rid of detrimental baggage and build a merged agency that best serves the interests of all three counties.
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