Stimulate This: Chambers of commerce look to state government for tourism ad dollars

         The newspaper that serves the golf saturated area of Hilton Head Island and Bluffton, SC, just completed a two-part series on how local government officials and marketing experts are fighting over how much money they need to promote the golf and beach oriented area.  According to the Island Packet, about $5 million more per year would put area spending for marketing the region on a par with similar regions across the nation.  Local marketers point to a bill the state of South Carolina legislature passed last year to permit the local government in Horry County (Myrtle Beach) to charge an extra 1% sales tax to fuel its tourism marketing budget.  This came after a Coastal Carolina University study showed that Myrtle Beach tourism was on the precipice of disaster as the middle-class tourists it relied on were not likely to return to the Grand Strand without encouragement.  The extended sales tax put an extra $10 million into the Myrtle Beach chamber of commerce’s marketing budget and, officials there believe, staunched the bleeding in the tourist economy.

        I am on Hilton Head for a couple of days, and I note that golf green fees are down to as low as $20 per round at courses that charged nearly $100 before the economy went sour.  It is hard to imagine such discounting will sustain some clubs much longer.  The same is true of local restaurants and hotels, where you can eat and sleep well and cheaply, relatively speaking.  This is an ideal time for anyone looking for a great golf vacation at a low price in South Carolina’s Low Country.

        I have also noticed that the golf course, resort, hotel and restaurant lobbies I’ve wandered into in Hilton Head feature racks of booklets and brochures with coupons and ads for local merchants.  Talk about penny wise and pound foolish; these merchants are spending their precious dollars to fight each other for a negligible piece of the pie.  Yet logic seems to dictate that survival depends on enlarging the pie.  That is, the merchants should pool their money and advertise in markets like Charlotte, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston to attract increasing numbers of golfers and beachgoers.  They should work together to drive more tourists to the area, and then fight over them later.  Instead, the first instinct of the business community, led by the chamber of commerce, is to ask government for help.  Ironic, isn’t it?