MetroWest Visitors Bureau Officially Launches
The MetroWest Tourism & Visitors Bureau, an advocacy group for MetroWest's cultural, hospitality and services industries, is slowly but surely ramping up its efforts to promote the region statewide.
As part of the effort, the state-funded nonprofit organization will hold a launch celebration Friday morning at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel. Officials will lay out goals for the group and solicit input from the community on how the region can be marketed.
"You don't have to be a hotel owner to realize that you can be positively affected by an organization like the visitors bureau," said executive director Susan Nicholl. "It's an effort that is good for everyone in the region."
The free event will begin at 7:45 a.m., with the program starting at 8:15, Nicholl said. RSVPs are required to attend. To do so, email susan@metrowestvisitors.org or call 508-361-9881.
Years In The Works
The MetroWest Tourism & Visitors Bureau actually started about four years ago as an informal collaboration among some of the region's local chambers of commerce.
In early 2010 the group became an official nonprofit organization and later in the year, as part of a state economic development bill sponsored by State Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, three new Regional Tourism Councils (RTCs) were created, including the MetroWest Tourism & Visitors Bureau.
That designation allowed the bureau to apply for state funding from the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism, Nicholl said, but it does not guarantee that the organization receives money. Last year, the bureau received a $24,000 grant from the state and this fiscal year, which started this fall, the bureau got $90,000.
There was some controversy when the new RTCs were created; some felt that the three new organizations would take money away from the existing tourism bureaus in the state. For example, some of the work the new MetroWest Visitors Bureau expects to focus on has been handled in the past by the Central Massachusetts Convention & Visitors Bureau, or the Boston-focused equivalent.
But Nicholl doesn't see the MetroWest organization as competition where each organization gets a smaller piece of the state funding pie. In fact, she said, budgets for the tourism efforts have increased in the last year. Plus, the MetroWest group is only taking about $90,000 out of a $6-million budget.
Much of the funding for the state organization comes from hotel taxes collected around the state. So, in a sense, Nicholl said, the money collected from MetroWest hotels now is able to be funneled back into the MetroWest Visitors Bureau, in an effort to attract more tourists to the region.
That, she said, is good for everyone in the area. Attracting people that have never been here or rarely come to MetroWest increases the stature of the area and benefits local businesses. Thriving businesses are good for residents living in MetroWest.
Nicholl said moving forward, the plan is two-fold: One step will be to create an infrastructure for the organization, meaning a structure of how it will be assembled, organized and how the membership will work. Already on the bureau's website are rates for membership, which range from $75 to $250.
The second major effort will be deciding what sorts of programming and initiatives the group should undertake. Nicholl plans to study what has worked best for other tourism bureaus in the state. Eventually, she has plans to advertise and create a printed product for the area.
Overall, Nicholl said the primary goal right now for the MetroWest Tourism & Visitors Bureau is to raise awareness of the organization, with its first launch breakfast Friday morning as a kickoff to that effort.
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