Anaheim modeled its tourism marketing efforts after other cities in California, but following through with public oversight over the millions of dollars from hotel stays that would be raised was left out of the mix.
The city, working with hoteliers in 2010, created a tourism district that would charge vacationers an extra 2% on their nightly hotel rate. Most of that money, now more than $20 million a year, was then to be used by Visit Anaheim for marketing the city around the world and booking its convention center.
It’s a setup that’s common throughout Southern California: a city partnering with a tourism-focused nonprofit to market the city with money supplied by hotel stays. Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and San Diego are among the cities that have had similar arrangements, but unlike Anaheim, public boards have helped to monitor those millions of dollars.
When the tourism district was formed nearly 15 years ago, included was the option for the City Council to create an advisory board to assist with oversight of those tourism dollars, but it was never invoked. Now, Anaheim officials are looking to enhance oversight of those dollars after state auditors in a recently released report chided the city for not having a meaningful monitoring process in place “given the significant funding that Visit Anaheim receives.” Some of that tourism money ended up being used for political advocacy and influence, the auditors said.
“The safeguards in the contract were not being followed,” Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said. “I look at the oversight board as a way for city staff to make sure that we are following the procedures that are going to be in place. There are certain things in that contract that I look forward to renegotiating to make sure that we are true partners and not just a pass-through organization.”
Aitken added that the city has a duty to visitors and taxpayers to ensure policies surrounding the public funds are being followed.
Assistant City…
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