Association draws tourists, conventions, dollars to town

LONGMONT – This July, red hats and motorcycles will fill the streets and hotels of Longmont thanks to the efforts of the Longmont Area Visitor’s Association.

In the space of three weeks, Longmont will host Red Hat Society and Star Touring conventions. The Red Hat Society is expected to bring 300 to 500 attendees and fill five Longmont hotels. Star Touring’s Star Days will draw 1,200 attendees and required coordination among 10 Longmont hotels.

According to Executive Director Beth Witzak, this is the first time in recent history that more than one hotel has collaborated to bring a convention into town. The Star Touring event will be the largest recorded convention held in Longmont.

“This event is unique because organizations of this caliber will only work with those cities that have a convention and visitor’s bureau or a travel association,” Witzak said. “We beat out several cities that have hosted this caliber of event.”

According to the Travel Industry Association of America, the national spending average for a two-day convention in 2004 was $945. Witzak said this means $283,500 from the Red Hat Society convention and $1,134,000 from Star Days will go into the Longmont economy.

Kathy Millisor, chief executive officer and president of the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce, said these two events would not have happened without the influence of Witzak and LAVA.

In addition to attracting conventions, Longmont leaders also hope LAVA will help the town capitalize on its location, especially when it comes to Estes Park tourist traffic.

“We are sitting on a gold mine with Estes tourists,´ said Nelson Miner, chair of the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce.

Witzak is working to take advantage of Longmont’s position on the Highway 66 corridor. She works closely with Estes Park to handle business they do not want or that is not well-suited to them, such as tour bus traffic. She also works closely with Lyons, which is a member of LAVA.

The tourism industry has a widespread impact on the town. “Almost a quarter of the businesses in Longmont are directly or indirectly affected by the tourism business,” she said. “People don’t realize how far that dollar goes.”

Witzak cited the Colorado Tourism Office Longwood’s Study to illustrate tourism’s effect. According to the study, in 2004, every public dollar invested in promoting Colorado tourism yielded $18.10 in state and local taxes. “Without tourism tax revenue, it is estimated that each person would have had to pay $115 in additional local and state taxes, equaling $460 in tax subsidy per family of four,” she said.

LAVA is currently supported by funding from the city of Longmont and the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce. In 2005 and 2006, LAVA received $30,000 from the city. The chamber matches the funding provided by the city in cash and in-kind services, such as office space and support.

To bring the association to the next level, LAVA plans to pursue a lodging tax on the ballot this fall, essentially a way for the tourism industry to fund itself. Witzak estimates that it will be an additional 2 percent tax on top of the hotel room cost.

“To get wings and fly we need to get sufficient resources,” Miner said. “The lodging tax creates a mechanism to get the minimum level of funding to have a viable and effective structure for the program.”

With the funds it has received so far, LAVA has helped the city undertake new activities. For the first time, Longmont has published a visitor’s guide distributed at the 12 official Colorado welcome centers, at the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce and in other sites around Longmont.

LAVA is participating in Tour Colorado, a statewide organization aimed at attracting organized travel to Colorado, and it has published nationwide ads in various travel magazines as part of a cooperative with other Front Range communities. LAVA revamped its Web site earlier this year with the help of an outside contractor.

Witzak hopes to expand the organization’s membership and infrastructure, and add more staff. Longmont can handle conventions drawing between 300 and 1,200 people. She’d like to bring more events to town, and is currently working on leads but did not want to share specifics until plans are finalized.

“We are pursuing meetings and conventions across many different market segments, including a national food festival that has the potential to become a signature event for Longmont,” she said.

LAVA currently has 42 members. Members pay yearly fees ranging from $150 for a nonprofit organization up to $350 for a 300-room hotel. The fees for hotels, restaurants and retail stores are based on the number of beds, seats or square footage.

“LAVA is a good business decision,´ said Mary Blue, a city council member who sits on the LAVA board. “The city is interested in having Longmont be as much of a destination as possible.”

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