Cumberland tourism board slashes budget for Fayetteville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
Cumberland County’s Tourism Development Authority on Wednesday cut $800,000 in funding from the agency that promotes travel to the Fayetteville area.
Members of the TDA expressed concerns at a special meeting over how the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau was spending money. They mentioned expenses for the bureau's website, consultants and travel.
The TDA allocates funds that are meant to enhance tourism in the area. State law requires a 6% occupancy tax during short-term lodging with the money going to tourism initiatives.
During the 2022-2023 fiscal year the TDA expects to receive almost $9 million in occupancy taxes, according to the budget approved by the board on Wednesday.
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Of those funds, it will distribute $2.2 million to the Crown Complex, $2.2 million to the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County, and $3.2 million to the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, according to the budget.
The original budget estimated that the Visitors Bureau would receive $4 million this fiscal year, based on a percentage allocation of the occupancy tax. However, County Attorney Rick Moorefield said that state law does not require the TDA to allocate a percentage of its funds to the Visitors Bureau.
As a result, the board unanimously decided to give the tourism center a flat amount of $3.2 million. It will then keep the $800,000 for its own discretionary purposes, which will total almost $1.2 million, according to the budget. The TDA would have received almost $366,000 in the original budget.
The FACVB has already spent $2.9 million, according to Visitors Bureau Board Chair Fred Surgeon, who said he was “concerned” about the budget cut.
Fake money?
The TDA board was critical of the Visitors Bureau’s spending. The bureau’s budget was not made public during the meeting, but board members referenced it during their discussion.
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TDA Chairman Vivek Tandon said that some of the expenses in the Visitors Bureau’s budget were ambiguous. He said it seemed as if someone was “just plugging in numbers" to get to the agency's estimated allocation. “That’s what it looks like to me,” he said.
Visitors Bureau Interim President Randy Fiveash said he “respectfully” disagreed. “There’s not any fake money in there just to fill a hole,” he said.
Fiveash said that the bureau has changed “everything” since he took over after former president John Meroski left in 2021. He also said that the bureau is “125% different.”
TDA board members asked for more descriptions of the FACVB’s expenditures, which Fiveash said he could provide in future quarterly reports.
New contract
The TDA board also approved a new contract with the Visitors Bureau, which is only for a year and requires TDA approval for expenditures of more than $100,000.
Fiveash asked for a longer contract since some marketing companies want 18-month contracts. The board replied that it would consider doing a longer contract next year if Fiveash was the permanent instead of interim president.
Former contract: Contract to call for tourism marketing details
The board also stipulated in its new contract that it wanted any unused and unencumbered funds year to be returned to the TDA, after an audit is completed.
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The Visitors Bureau currently has money saved, known as a fund balance, which Moorefield said is a “substantial amount” that shouldn’t exist according to the current contract.
“If this provision had been followed, there wouldn’t be any fund balance,” he said.
Surgeon said that the Visitors Bureau is required to have three months’ worth of revenue for its fund balance, which it has.
The Visitors Bureau will review the contract at its next meeting.
Reporter Ivey Schofield can be reached at ischofield@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Cumberland tourism authority takes money away from visitors bureau
