City seeking director for tourism program

Source: The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.迷你倉Jan. 27--Nearly one month into launching its own in-house tourism program, Lynchburg city officials are fielding applications for the tourism director position and working to get the department off the ground.People have been contacting the city about the tourism director job since last month, Mayor Michael Gillette said."I think there are plenty of folks out there who can do the work," he said.The job notice for the tourism director position was posted last week. In the meantime, City Manager Kimball Payne said officials are focused on fulfilling new requests for information and preparing for the Virginia High School Coaches Association's All-Star games, which are returning to Lynchburg this summer.City Hall formed its own internal tourism department Jan. 1 after opting to not continue outsourcing it to the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce as it had for the past two decades. The decision followed years of recurring tensions between parties on both sides.Four of the five senior members of the chamber's tourism staff, including tourism director Beckie Nix, parted ways with the city last month after turning down offers to join the new tourism department. Those four recently announced that they're striking out and creating a new tourism consultancy under the umbrella of a Forest advertising firm.Originally, Payne had hoped all of the tourism staff would move to the new department. The department now is operating with the lone employee who agreed to stay on. Payne said that staffer has been set up in a temporary office while the city searches for a new director.Recently, Payne told City Council he hoped the program would be back up to full speed by July when the new fiscal year begins. The visitor's center, which retained its entire staff, remains open and operatin迷你倉將軍澳 as usual.The employees who left in December, including Nix, announced last week they're forming a new service, prototype:tourism, which will be a division of prototype:advertising in Forest. The team will handle brand development, marketing campaigns, event management and other services for clients like hotels, tourist attractions and local governments."We're very excited about this new venture," said Nix, president of prototype:tourism. "For the four of us, of course, it provides a great opportunity for our team to stay together in an industry we love so much."Councilman Jeff Helgeson, who disagreed with the decision to end the city-chamber partnership, credited Nix and her staff with building a successful program from the ground up for Lynchburg.The city's decision to take over that program was a shame, he said, and the departure of most of its staff a bad sign."These things are all about the professionalism of the staff," Helgeson said. "When all of the staff says, 'No way,' that should tell you something."Gillette said he wished the former staff well, but he remained confident the city would continue a successful program.The city also is seeking volunteers for the new tourism advisory board it's forming to help govern the new department.The board will assist in planning and administrating the new tourism department. It will consist of eight citizen appointees and a representative of the city manager's office.Payne said the city also wants to reach out to local tourism industry representatives during this period of transition."We want to assure our stakeholders that we are listening to them and we are still here to serve them," he said.Copyright: ___ (c)2014 The News & Advance (Lynchburg, Va.) Visit The News & Advance (Lynchburg, Va.) at .newsadvance.com Distributed by MCT Information Services24小時迷你倉