Travel and Tourism financials

During the Hot Springs Travel and Tourism Board’s meeting, Director Amanda Moeller reported she was anticipating having something near the norm for the June deposit of lodging tax receipts. However, it was about $3,000 less compared to last year. “That changes some numbers for us going into the next fiscal year,” she said, but noted overall receipts are up four percent for the year.

As of Tuesday, the board had $6,257 not spent out of the budget. Moeller pointed out there was not enough to pay out the special events for this fiscal year, so those will have to roll over to the next year, and she is still waiting on $5,000 from the Wyoming Office of Tourism that should come this week or next.

Overall, the change to the budget is about $500. “It’s not a huge blow,” Moeller said, “because I was being very conservative with the predictions.” With regard to budget adjustments, Moeller pointed out everything does still balance out. The board did accept the end of year financial report.

In other action, the board approved a fiscal year 2018-19 contract with the Thermopolis-Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce. Under the contract, Travel and Tourism will provide up to $3,000 for staff, paid out $1,000 per month, per invoice.

Bob Spain was elected the board vice president, a position recently vacated by Rick Tudor.

Also during the meeting, the board took up amending the bylaws to define “travel and tourism industry” for future board appointments. The issue stems from a recent meeting, during which a point was raised that a better definition might be necessary. Moeller said she called the Wyoming Lodging and Restaurant Association and spoke to Chris Brown, who said there is no standard definition and it’s up to each community to decide their own. Brown, Moeller said, pointed out the leisure tax they went after was only for accommodations, food and beverage, recreation and retail shopping in regard to gifts and souvenirs, and did not include other areas such as propane and fuel.

Issues were raised by the recent decision by the Hot Springs County Commission to appoint Commissioner Phil Scheel to the Travel and Tourism Board, one of them being the definition of tourism.

During Tuesday's meeting of the commission, Scheel resigned from the Travel and Tourism Board and Matt Hughes was appointed.

Brown further added what’s important for tourism in one community is different than in another, so it is up to the board to determine the definition. By statute, Moeller said, “we only have to have enough people in travel and tourism to be a majority of the total board members, but if don’t have a working definition for this board that’s kind of moot.”

Board member Carl Leyba expressed concern the board has a seat that is appointed by the state, and he wants to keep it local. Board President Angie Guyon noted the state representative can provide insight and give local boards an idea of the direction the state is going. Guyon also suggested board members come up with their own definitions of travel and tourism, then bring them together and compile a final definition.

The board also discussed finding time to do some strategic planning and goal setting better determine where they want to be in the next five to 10 years. It was suggested they develop some of the major points they want to address, then develop a plan. However, as summer is a busy time for many of the board members it was determined the meeting for plan development be scheduled later this year.

In other financial matters, Moeller reported the state budget was sent and passed, and a budget hearing for the Hot Springs Travel and Tourism Board is scheduled for Tuesday, July 17 prior to the regular meeting.