Editor’s Note: The headline on this story was changed to reflect that Visit Baton Rouge is not campaigning for the hotel occupancy tax. Daily Report regrets this error.
While a political action committee created by the restaurant industry to support a proposed 2% hotel occupancy tax on the November ballot is getting its media campaign under way, Visit Baton Rouge—which would, in part, be the beneficiary of the tax—has launched its own informational campaign.
As a political subdivision, Visit Baton Rouge is legally prohibited from campaigning for the tax per se. But as part of its strategic plan, the agency had already planned a broader outreach campaign designed to educate the public about what VBR does, how it spends its money and how the tourism industry benefits the community.
“This campaign is bigger than the tax,” says Visit Baton Rouge President and CEO Paul Arrigo. “Tax or no tax we have to do a better job of reaching out and letting the community know what we’re all about and how we rely on locals to help us attract visitors and conventions”
Visit Baton Rouge’s $50,000 public outreach campaign consists of video spots streaming on social media, radio and print ads, and grassroots marketing. Arrigo says for the past couple of months he’s been making the rounds, giving speeches to business, civic and community groups to help better educate them on the role, scope and mission of his organization.
The $50,000 in paid media is coming out of the agency’s overall budget.
Separately, the Baton Rouge Tourism Now Political Action Committee, which was created in August by the Louisiana Restaurant Association, is running ads advocating for the tax, which would generate about $2.6 million a year and be evenly divided between Visit Baton Rouge for tourism marketing and the Raising Cane’s River Center for renovations to the 40-year-old facility.
A similar tax failed last year, but Arrigo is optimistic things will be different this time around because of more targeted and deliberate efforts to explain to likely voters how the tax money would be used.
“We have looked at the results of the last election and looked at what areas have a high propensity to vote and a high propensity to vote in favor of the tax,” he says. “Last time, we didn’t do a good job of informing the public of what the tax is, who pays for it and where it’s going. This time, we are so we will wait and see what happens on Nov. 18.”
—Stephanie Riegel
