A new tourism marketing district, set to replace the embattled Redondo Beach Visitors Bureau, was established following its approval by the Redondo Beach City Council. City officials hope that once it’s up and running, the district will help Redondo’s stature as a tourist destination, thusly helping the city’s economic bottom line.
On Tuesday night, the City Council approved a resolution establishing the Redondo Beach Tourism Marketing District, a special tax district that uses hotelier tax revenues specifically to promote the city as a vacation destination.
RBTMD will be managed by Redondo Beach Travel and Tourism, a newly-formed non-profit that will function similarly to the Riviera Village Business District.
One percent of annual gross room rental revenue generated by member hotels (lodging businesses with 20 or more rooms) will be returned to RBTMD to promote tourism, events, and marketing. City staff estimates that RBTMD will generate about $785,000 per year on those numbers.
The RBTMD takes the place of the former Redondo Beach Visitors Bureau, which was combined with the city’s Chamber of Commerce in the 2000s. As the Chamber become politically active, increased scrutiny was placed upon the Chamber by opposing activists.
The big difference between the Visitor’s Bureau and RBTT, said Mayor Bill Brand, is that the Visitor’s Bureau “wasn’t made up of people who were paying [the tax].” Under RBTT, the hoteliers will have more direct control over how their promotions will be used.
According to Redondo Beach Waterfront and Economic Developer Stephen Proud, whose office helped coordinate RBTMD’s formation, RBTT’s proposed bylaws prohibit the organization from using funds to create a political action committee, and the organization will not be allowed to lobby elected officials or regulatory agencies.
Those bylaws must still be adopted by the RBTT Board, a majority of which will be comprised by Redondo Beach hoteliers.
Redondo’s Council members were generally enthused with the plan, though they were interested in ensuring RBTMD’s effectiveness and transparency.
Councilman Todd Loewenstein, in particular, was interested in ensuring that RBTMD’s Form 990 tax returns, which are already publicly-viewable documents, be made easily available locally.
“For purposes like this, I think it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to have them available to the public as they wanted to see them, for full transparency purposes,” Loewenstein said.
Councilman Christian Horvath, echoing concerns of Councilman Nils Nehrenheim, asked if the district would be able to determine its economic impact on the area when reporting to the Council, which Gina Trechter, with TMD consultant Civitas, said is doable.
“The more robust the annual report is, the more peace of mind this council and future councils will have,” Horvath said.
