Volusia County Council Approves Advertising Budgets

The three organizations that promote Volusia County as a tourist destination will have more than $31 million to get the word out in the next fiscal year.

The Volusia County Council earlier this month unanimously approved budgets for the Halifax Area Advertising Authority, the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority and the West Volusia Advertising Authority, but that arrangement could change.

County Councilmember David Santiago said while he supported the budget recommendations, he said the current structure of three advertising authorities should be reconsidered.

“Maybe it is something for us to evaluate if we need three different boards,” he said. “I think it’s worth a discussion for future budgets to analyze if it still continues to work.”

Santiago wasn’t the only elected official who wasn’t completely satisfied with the status quo.

Councilmember Don Dempsey said while the east side of the county gets most of the attention from visitors, the West Volusia deserves a bigger slice of the tourism development pie. For the upcoming fiscal year, the Halifax Area budget tops the list with $22.4 million, followed by Southeast Volusia at $7 million, with West Volusia coming in at $1.9 million.

Dempsey asked if it was possible to shift some funds earmarked for the Ocean Center for West Volusia tourism development efforts.

“We need to look into that,” he said. “This is just another example if the west side, for lack of a better term, not getting a fair treatment.”

In her presentation to the County Council, Lori Campbell Baker, executive director of the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau which oversees the Halifax Area Advertising Authority, outlined how the tourism development efforts are funded.

“Do local residents pay for tourism marketing?” she asked. “No, the good news is it is the bed tax that pays for these three budgets you’re going to be looking at.”

Kay Galloway, Daytona Beach Area CVB marketing and design director, highlighted some of the group’s accomplishments over the past year, including the hiring oif a new advertising agency and the placement of the agency’s first 3-D billboard in Times Square in New York City.

Georgia Turner, executive director of the West Volusia Advertising Authority, said the organization has a new website and is doing a lot of digital advertising to raise awareness of what the west side has to offer.

“A lot of people know what they want to do when they come to Florida, but they don’t know that it is here in West Volusia,” she said.

Turner also said the organization’s budget has grown substantially in the six years she has been at the helm.

“When I first got here our budget was about $600,000 and not it is almost $2 million,” she said.