County Tourism Offices Creates Promotional Opportunities for Racetracks
In our last USMA Newsletter we discussed amusement taxes. One of the areas where amusement tax dollars are spent is tourism. Many States and Counties across the United States have tourism offices. The mission of these offices is to attract visitors and generate additional revenue. Sometimes a tourism office will be connected to the State/County Economic Development Department.
Some counties fund their tourism offices with a hotel/motel tax. Hotels, bed and breakfast establishments, and RV parks collect these taxes. Tourism offices promote recreation, parks, marathons, conventions, athletic events, historic attractions, walking trails, and tours.
In otherwords, these offices promote events that bring people into the county who rent hotel rooms, eat at local restaurants, and purchase products from local vendors.
Can tourism offices promote racetracks?
The answer is yes. We strongly encourage all racetracks to utilize their county tourism offices in promoting their event schedule, especially when touring series are at the track. These are out-of-towners who certainly may use the local RV Park, hotel, service stations, and restaurants.
Remember, it is the job of the tourism office to promote local events attracting newcomers. Speedways do this. In fact, there are many racers who compete in a speedway weekly series who do not reside in the county where the venue is located.
What can the Tourism office do to promote your racetrack?
Tourism offices can provide the following:
Advertise your schedule/events on local TV, newspaper, magazine, websites, and social media.
Provide signage /billboards
Attend public events where your track promotional material will be circulated
List your racetrack in all County promotional publications/promotions
If you have not already done so, we recommend contacting your tourism office and building a relationship with their staff,. Invite the tourism office to at least one event annually, and hopefully more. Add them to your invite list. Ask them if they maintain a list of individuals/organizations which can be invited to the racetrack to see one of your events.
Make the tourism office a friend of the speedway. It will be beneficial in promoting your schedule throughout the year.
If you have questions, please feel free to call the USMA at phone #844-643-2777.