Noreen Bodman
While part of an 8 percent hotel tax
implemented last July is slated to help New Jersey fund future
convention and visitor bureaus, some cities are creating ad-hoc
agencies now to attract business.
The state has just one CVB, the Atlantic City Convention &
Visitors Authority. For more to be created, the Trenton-based New
Jersey Travel Industry Association, working with the state Office
of Travel and Tourism, must decide where and what their
jurisdictions will be, which can take at least two or three years,
according to NJTIA board member Noreen Bodman.
Some areas are not waiting. New Brunswick is now looking to
create a CVB on its own. To the south, the Camden Waterfront
Marketing Bureau launched the South Jersey Tourism Corp. in March
to help five local counties compete with nearby Atlantic City and
Philadelphia.
In the Meadowlands, west of New York City, the local chamber of
commerce aims to create a CVB by year-end to help promote a major
golf development and a theme park, both breaking ground this
year.
With proper oversight and tax controls, the new bureaus should
benefit the entire state, said Robert Canton, Tampa, Fla.-based
director of convention and tourism practice for
PricewaterhouseCoopers.