Tourism commission to meet
at Matunuck Oyster Bar
The Special Legislative Commission to Study Methods for
Growing Tourism in the State of Rhode Island Through Coordinated Branding and
Marketing Efforts will meet Friday at the Matunuck Oyster Bar in South Kingstown.
The meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled
Friday, Aug. 19, at 10 a.m. at the Matunuck Oyster Bar, 629 Succotash Rd.,
South Kingstown.
The commission, which also includes Rep. Kathleen A.
Fogarty (D-Dist. 35, South Kingstown), was
organized to study Rhode Island’s tourism industry and make recommendations for
cultivating it through statewide coordinated branding and marketing efforts.
It
is currently working to review the distribution of the hotel tax; to examine
other state tourism promotion organizational structures in order to recommend a
stable and effective organizational home for statewide tourism efforts; and to
design and recommend a metric system for measuring the impact and the return on
investment on state tourism and marketing dollars.
It is also receiving regular
reports from the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation, which receives a share of
the hotel tax for marketing and branding, and reviewing its campaigns,
expenditures and the return on dollars spent.
The meeting will include discussions from the
commission’s workgroups on the hotel tax distribution, measurement metrics and
other states’ tourism promotion structures, as well as an update from the
Commerce Corporation by its Chief Marketing Officer Lara Salamano and
Havas.
It will also include a presentation about the Matunuck Oyster Bar by
Perry Raso, who owns both the restaurant and Matunuck Oyster Farm, which
supplies the restaurant with oysters through his “pond to plate” concept.
Public testimony is welcome.