The Dalles opens tourism promotion bid to new competitors

On Feb. 20, the city put out a request for proposals for this three-year contract and have received proposals from entities affiliated with the Granada Theater, the Neon Sign Museumand a PR firm from Portland, in addition to a proposal from the chamber.

City Manager Matthew Klebes told Columbia Gorge News the city’s request for proposals is a routine process at the end of the previous provider’s contract. Opening to new contract bidders, he said, is intended to ensure the city is getting the best tourism promotion services for its money.

“It’s not a reflection of any under performance or anything by the chamber. I think we’ve been very pleased with the services they’ve delivered,” Klebes said, explaining that this process “provides an open opportunity for everybody to present their most competitive proposal for that contract.”

The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce’s contract to manage tourism promotion for the city expires at the end of this fiscal year starting in June. The responsibilities of this contract include managing a visitors center; promoting the cruise ship industry; support and recruitment for major city events; media campaigns online, on social media and in print publications; and data analysis and market reporting.

For the chamber, which has facilitated nearly double the revenue growth in tourism taxes in the past 10 years, the idea of passing off this award to a new contract comes as a shock.

“There’s no guarantee I’m going to get the contract,” said Lisa Farquharson, CEO of The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce.

Farquharson said the potential of losing the contract has derailed her planning for the upcoming year, including a number of contracts and marketing campaigns.

“I had to stop all of my future marketing until I know,” she said.

Chamber member Dawn Rassmussen, who operates Pathfinder Writing and Career Services, spoke in support of the chamber. She told Columbia Gorge News she feels the chamber’s budget transparency and data on their deliverables holds to a high standard.

“I’m concerned about this whole thing going out to bid. I mean, people see the hotel, motel, tax dollars as a cash cow, and so they all want to get their fingers in the pot,” she said.

Where does this money come from?

Funds for tourism promotion come from a transient lodging tax (TLT), which charges 8% on any time a visitor books a hotel, AirBnb or other short term rental.

According to the city budget, the city anticipated receiving approximately $1.4 million in TLT in the 2024-25 fiscal year, the third highest source of revenue behind property taxes and the public utilities district.

Oregon law currently requires that 70% of these taxes go toward tourism promotion, with 30% left over for the city’s general fund.

However, because The Dalles levied these taxes before this law, their current distribution percentages are grandfathered in with 55% going toward tourism promotion and the other 45% going toward the city’s general fund.

Farquharson said the chamber only sees 30% of those tax dollars to provide the deliverables in their contract with the city.

“My proposed budget to the city was $460,000 and I’m dealing with neighbors that are in the $1 million range,” she said.

Contract award potentially split

A few weeks after the city put out their request for bids, an addenda was added on March 12 noting that the staff would accept proposals fulfilling only some of the services. This means a contractor could make an offer to run the city’s digital tourism marketing without also agreeing to run the visitor’s center.

Klebes explained that while the chamber previously ran all these services as one unit, city staff felt it would be more competitive to potentially split the contract between proposals.

“The city wanted to reserve the right to award those pieces all together or individually. So depending on the strengths of the proposals we received, we wanted the most flexibility possible,” he said.

Chuck Gomez owns and operates the Granada Theater with his wife Debra, along with another theater in Watseka, Illinois. He views the opportunity to apply for this contract as a more democratized use of the TLT dollars, which have been boosted by out-of-town concert goers at the Granada.

Even so, Gomez said he and some individuals he’s spoken with feel “the requirements for the RFP have kind of been written in favor of the chamber’s point of view and approach, and not necessarily individual’s points of view.”

Gomez has discussed tourism on the KODL radio program “Coffee Break” with program host Al Wynn and former mayor of The Dalles, Steve Lawrence, questioning the chamber’s track record with tourism spending and voicing support for “community based tourism.”

Criticizing the chamber during a Feb. 17 broadcast, Lawrence said, “We have absolutely no idea what their success rate is in terms of what any goals were.”

Columbia Gorge News asked Gomez if he had reviewed the chamber’s annual reports, which include a budget presentation similar to the city’s own budgets and granular examples of spending.

“I really don’t research how they spent their money or how their reports are going. I just look at how well they reach out for tourism,” he replied. “I just feel that even the chamber doesn’t have a strong sense of what tourism is about.”

Gomez criticized the chamber’s emphasis on fishing, which he doesn’t see as a particularly strong attraction point.

“Now the guides may be doing well, but if we were truly a fishing center, you would see a dozen stores that carry tackle and bait,” he said, “and I’m not seeing that.”

Columbia Gorge News reached out to the Neon Sign Museum but has not received a response at the time this article was printed.

Is it fair for a business to represent the community?

Stephen Kane, owner and operator of Bargeway Pub and Catering, expressed concern about potential conflicts of interest when a business takes on promotion for the whole community.

“The chamber is for everybody,” he said. “If it went to just the Neon Sign Museum or the Granada, it would just benefit them.”

Klebes says the conditions of the RFP require strict use of these funds by a nonprofit entity exclusively for the purpose of promoting the whole community. He noted the ad hoc committee of local business owners, community leaders and economic development professionals are reviewing the applicants and weeding out direct conflicts of interest.

“This tourism services contract is not for any one business or any one particular area of town, but for the city of The Dallas as a whole,” he said. “This is why we go through a competitive process with a detailed scope of work review criteria.”

Drawing attention to a promotional video he commissioned representing the whole of The Dalles, Gomez argues that a rising tide lifts all ships. If the Granada Theater gets more traffic, it will benefit local restaurants, hotels and other forms of entertainment in the city.

He says it should be business owners at the helm of business promotion.

“If you don’t do advertising for a living, you’re really not aware of it,” he said. “You really don’t know how it operates. You don’t realize the impact of it.”

Cynthia Kortge, administrative director for The Dalles Main Street organization, works regularly with the chamber in her position promoting downtown businesses. She spoke in support of the chamber receiving the contract.

“They’ve built relationships, and have worked towards moving in the right direction putting The Dalles on the map, and I think they should be able to continue to do so,” Kortge told Columbia Gorge News. “Right now, changing that would be a detriment to the community.”

How to attract visitors to The Dalles

At the last presentation by the chamber on April 22, 2024, Farquharson showed the chamber’s tourism campaigns in print, television, social media and targeted digital ads.

Between 2021-2024, the chamber documented a 4,900% increase in web traffic.

“We make our dollar count, and we make every penny count, and we get things done, and we’ve increased tourism,” Farquharson said.

She explained that targeted digital marketing allows her ad campaigns to select for a specific profile of a “smart visitor” who will spend more money over a multiple-night visit and have a more conscientious attitude toward the community throughout their visit.

“Not just someone who’s going to come spend the night and go,” she said.

Datify allows Farquharson to follow a specific user who clicked on one of the “Explore the Dalles” ads, and follow the user’s phone all the way through their visit to The Dalles. Aggregating this data has helped the chamber hone their strategy for targeting different major cities for potential visitors.

Gomez hopes to challenge this approach with his track record of out-of-state visitors coming to shows at the Granada, as well as his network of media and music business connections.

“My proposal was to reach out to as many people as possible based on our experience, by selling show promotions at the theaters that we’ve owned for 20 years,” said Gomez.

Gomez pointed to his relationship with George Noory’s “Coast to Coast” radio show on iHeartRadio, which tapes annually at the Granada and delivers two promotions per month to the show’s 2.5 million weekly listeners.

“The first thing they say is ‘the historic Granada Theater in the beautiful town of The Dalles, Oregon,’ and that is a strong promotion for our community,” Gomez said.

When Columbia Gorge News asked Gomez to explain how he’d compete with the chamber’s use of Datify to track and monitor each potential visitor, he pointed to his current method of data collection through Grenada ticket sales.

Granada creating new welcome center regardless of contract

If you’ve driven by the Granada Theater recently, you might have noticed the marquee saying “Future of Spotlight Tourism Center.”

Both Rasmussen and Klebes mentioned noticing the marquee with some level of confusion, given the pending contract award.

Gomez clarified that the Granada Theater is in the process of creating a welcome center for tourists, whether they get the TLT dollars or not.

“Regardless of where the chips may fall, we are here, and we’re starting to develop our tourism center,” Gomez said. “We enjoy reaching out to people and drawing people into our theater and into our community. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Gomez compares the potential community earnings from tourism to Google’s economic benefit, citing spending averages from the Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Research website.

“A strong advertising campaign to bring in 50 families a year, [during the] weekend, over the [course of a] year could bring in $4.3 million to the community,” he said. “It’s a second Google windfall without any of the concessions that we make to Google. It’s a win.”

He added that he doesn’t think an out-of-town PR company could do nearly as good a job promoting The Dalles as a local resident.

“Nobody knows the strength of the family better than the family members,” Gomez said.

On this, Farquharson agrees.

“I firmly believe in The Dalles, you need to be feet on the ground,” she said. “You need to be in the community to understand.”