PAGO Welcomes Clarion Commissioners’ Review

Ron Wilshire

Ron Wilshire

Published April 14, 2017 4:32 am
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BROOKVILLE, Pa. (EYT) — The Pennsylvania Great Outdoors (PAGO) Tourism Promotion Agency (TPA) welcomes efforts by Clarion County Commissioners to determine what the agency does to attract tourists to Clarion County.

“It is something they should look at to make sure we’re doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing,” said Kitty Coleman, PAGO operation manager. “The new commissioners with Clarion have never dealt with the situation of the room tax before, so everything was sort of new to them.”

Coleman said the relationship between TPAs across the state is a touchy subject because Act 18 passed in 2016 made some changes in the hotel tax and what it can be used for in the counties. In some larger counties, not in the five PAGO counties, commissioners sometimes looked at projects like paving parking lots and thinking that would quality for tourism because it would allow more tourists to park.

“That is not what the state had in mind for tourism,” said Coleman. “Act 18 puts a little more definition on exactly what the TPAs are supposed to do, and we’ve been following that to the letter.”

Coleman, speaking for PAGO Executive Director Stratify who is representing PAGO at scheduled Outdoor Shows this week, said PAGO is increasing the types of promotional activities.

“We are expanding our reach. We’re doing more blogging, social media…TV stations we weren’t on before,” said Coleman. “When John does things like that, he is attaching emails to whichever set of commissioners that it applies to because we have five counties here.  If there is something specifically Clarion County-related, he makes sure he lets them know because if we don’t do that, they don’t know what we do….We want them to know.  We want them to know when we do big things and what our expertise is.”

PAGO prints a number of slick, promotional publications, including the PAGO Visitors Guide, a guide that is picked up in the most in the state, second only to Hershey, PA.  PAGO contracts with Anderson Distribution, and the guide are distributed to outdoors shows and camping shows over the entire East Coast.

Act 18 requirements

Use of hotel tax revenues by Tourist Promotion Agency

• Marketing the area served by the agency as a leisure travel destination.

• Marketing the area served by the agency as a business, convention, or meeting travel destination.

• Using all appropriate marketing tools to accomplish these programs, including, but not limited to: advertising, publicity, publications, direct marketing, sales, technology, and participation in an industry trade shows that attract tourists or travelers to the area served by the agency.

• Programs, expenditures, or grants that are directly and substantially related to tourism or a business, convention, or median travel destination within the county, augment and do not compete with private sector tourism for travel efforts and improve and expand the county as destination market as deemed necessary by the recognized tourist promotion agency.

• Any other travel marketing or promotion program, expenditure project that does not compete with private sector work travel efforts as deemed necessary by the recognized tourist promotion agency.

 Certification of Tourist Promotion Agency

• A county may certify single tourist promotion agency, which may be a nonprofit corporation, organization, association or agency.

• A county must certify a tourist promotion agency by resolution, with the concurrence by resolution of municipalities within the county represented at least fifty percent of the county’s population per the most recent census.

• A county may decertify its tourist promotion agency by resolution, with concurrence by resolution of municipalities within the county represented at least 65 percent of the county’s population per the most recent census. The county must hold at least one public hearing at least seven days before the meeting to adopt a resolution to decertify.

RELATED: Clarion County Questions How to Get Biggest Bang from $250,000 Tourism Promotion

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