DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA
GOVERNMENT

FY 81

Analysis of FY 1981 Changes

J-94079

SUMMARY OF 1981 NET APPROPRIATED BUDGET ESTIMATES

Agency Washington Area Convention and Visitors Assn. Fund. Budget Phase Congressional Submission

General

EXPLANATION OF INCREASES

Agency Washington Area Convention and Visitors Association Fund. Congressional Submission

Budget Phase.

Visitor marketing in the years ahead will require a very
substantial increase in its funding so we can maintain and
continue to grow in the field of promotion and visitor service.
Currently, hundreds of thousands of visitor inquiries are being
answered by two Information Specialists and the entire Market-
ing Program is being handled by the Director of Visitor Market-
ing and one Secretary. The printing budget of the Association
has not increased in three years and we are now in the position
of not being able to fulfill the requests we currently have for
the brochures we print. We receive calls from hundreds of Con-
gressional offices each year asking for considerable quantities
of brochures to distribute to their constituents when they visit
their offices and we consistently have to reduce the amount
of their requests in order to maintain a supply throughout the
year. The visitor promotion film that the Association had been
using until this past year was some eight years old and no long-
er properly representative of the city as it is today. A short
punchy, hard selling, new film is needed for travel agent orien-
tation, foreign market development, convention sales, and tele-
vision usage. In summary, Visitor Marketing needs $30,000 in
new personnel, $50,000 in additional brochure printing, $50,000
for a new film, and $20,000 for staff travel for tourism pro-
motion.

The selling of the Civic Center and the selling of Washing-
ton as a convention destination are in dire need of additional
funding to assure our continued success. With the Civic Center,
this city will have an investment of $100 million dollars and
only through aggressive sales by the Association to the poten-
tial users will this center be a success. Not only must the
center be sold but a broad based coordinated effort is required
with the hotels and all other facilities that conventions need
in order for convention holding organizations to select the
Nation's Capital. Along with the Civic Center, we will be see:
ing the development of some 6,000 new hotel rooms in the next

Control Center Name

few years and, in order for these properties to be an economic
success, we will have to find an average of 10,000 new conven-
tion and business visitors per day. The current sales staff of
four Sales Persons and two Secretaries with a program that con-
sists of no advertising, limited brochures, and reduced sales
travel must be drastically upgraded. Next year and in the years
ahead, we will have to see the institution of a broad based
advertising program announcing the construction and development
of the Civic Center in a minimum of five trade publications.
Printing of a special brochure both promotional and factual will
be needed for mailing and distribution to the potential custo-
mers throughout the country. We will need to greatly expand
the printing of our current convention facilities booklet to
include the many new hotel facilities plus the Civic Center
that will be coming to the marketplace in the years ahead.
Special public relations programs will have to be developed in
the cities of New York, Chicago, and Washingto to further sell
the customers on a Washington meeting. In addition, these pub-
lic relations programs will have to be conducted with the
three organizations that represent large numbers of buyers in
their annual meetings which are specifically (1) the Joint
Confere ice on Medical Conventions, (2) the National Association
of Exposition Managers, and (3) the American Society of Asso-
ciation Executives. In order to carry out these tasks, addi-
tional sales personnel are needed with secretarial support.
summary, convention promotion will require $80,000 in advertis-
ing, $20,000 in printing, $20,000 in a marketing public relations
effort, $85,000 in additional personnel, and $35,000 in addition-
al travel expense.

In

Mr. DIXON. We have next the Washington Area Convention and Visitors Association. We have Mr. Ted Hagans, president of the Association, and Mr. Austin Kenny, the executive vice president.

BUDGET REQUEST

You are requesting $298,000 for fiscal year 1981, an increase of $200,000 above the 1980 appropriation.

I believe you have a statement. I would like you to tell me something about the organization and what its functions and purposes are.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF OFFICE

Mr. HAGANS. Good morning, Mr. Chairman.

My name is Ted Hagans and, by profession, I am president of Hagans Enterprises and am currently serving as president of the Washington Convention and Visitors Association.

With me today is Austin Kenny, the executive vice president of the Association.

Our organization was founded some 48 years ago for the sole purpose of improving the economic health of Washington by attracting as many conventions as possible and also developing the tourism market to its greatest extent. Currently, the organization is funded with dues from the local business community in the amount of $500,000 and an appropriation in the District of Columbia budget in the amount of $98,000. With this small budget, we are especially delighted when we examine the results that were obtained this past year. Convention attendance reached a record high and these welcome visitors left $250 million behind to bolster our economy. Overall, visitor spending hit the billion-dollar mark and this vital industry is responsible for some 45,000 jobs and over $40 million in tax revenues.

NEW CONVENTION CENTER

We are not appearing here today, however, to talk about the past. We are here to discusss where this important economic force is going to be in the future and to discuss the marketing of our new $100 million Convention Center that is proceeding rapidly towards groundbreaking and construction.

Our competitors, such as Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, et cetera, are spending between one and two million dollars a year to actively and aggressively promote their cities in this highly competitive field. Their city governments are pumping between $700,000 and $2 million into their convention and visitor organizations to see that this healthy source of tax revenue continues to grow. Attached to our testimony is a representative list of what other cities do.

We have, unfortunately, been operating on an extremely low level of financing, although I must admit that the business community has supported this organization and are the best private money raisers in the United States. The budget request that you are considering today is an important step in the right direction