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Show Successful Season Gives Travel Council $240,000 1992 Budget The Garfield County Commission Commis-sion has approved a $240,000 budget bud-get for the Garfield Travel Council for 1992. The travel Council met for its monthly meeting on Dec. 19 at Rubys Inn. Funds that have swelled the travel council's budget over the past several years have come exclusively each year from transient room taxes generated by motels and bed and breakfast establishments estab-lishments in the county. Members of the council were appointed by the county commission after recommendation rec-ommendation by the council with the exception of the executive director direc-tor and the commission representative representa-tive who were recommended and appointed by the commission. The council has made a recent change in policy, asking for matching match-ing funds on area projects by individual indi-vidual businesses and agencies before be-fore committing taxpayer funds to them, particularly those which benefit ben-efit individual businesses. The council has committed $13,000 of its budget for 1992 to matching funds. Council members received sample sam-ple copies of the county's new full color map-fold Highway 12143 brochure, just off the press. The brochure, first of its kind to promote pro-mote the county's Scenic Byways and Scenic Bacicways in full color, has been months in the developing at Creative Marketing in Salt Lake City. Seventy thousand were printed from the 1991 budget at a cost of $6,000 and an additional 70,000 will be printed from 1992 monies at a cost of $5,000. Twenty-five percent off the top of the travel council's budget ($60,000) goes to Color Country Travel Council for promoting the state and the five-county area, leaving leav-ing $180,000 to be administered locally. lo-cally. Of that, $45,000 plus an additional ad-ditional $8,000 in benefits goes to pay salaries and wages of executive director Bruce Fullmer and the people peo-ple who staff the county's information informa-tion centers in the summertime. An additional $5,000 is allotted for travel. Eighteen thousand dollars goes for a private service contract, $10,000 each to radio advertising, billboard advertising, county brochures, and travel shows and $6,000 to Familiarization Tours for visiting tour guide operators. Another An-other $5,000 each will go to Highway High-way 12143 brochure reprints and to the Garfield County News.for copies of the 7992 Bryce Canyon Country Vacation Guide. Funds allotted to special events include the Panguitch Invitational Rodeo ($3,000), Rim Run ($6,000) Mountain Bike Festival ($3,500), and Super Host trainers and material ($3,000). Placemats with the map of the county will cost $3,000. At last week's meeting motions were passed to purchase 2000 additional addi-tional placemats from Creative Marketing using surplus funds from the 1991 budget; to place an ad in the local news requesting signups for the council's SuperHost training program; to participate in the 1992 Las Vegas Travel Show Feb. 7-9; to commit $3,000 in matching funds to a Forest Service Interpre- ' live Project; to spend $1,900 for advertising in Bicycle Utah Vacation Vaca-tion Guide, to spend up to $300 for yardstick advertising for 4-H California Cali-fornia workshop; and to make a request re-quest for estimates on costs for a three-hours-a-day part-time secretary and equipment for the council. ! Other requests to the council in- eluded a request for matching funds from Lamar LeFevre for the Can-nonville Can-nonville Bear Festival and the Highway 12 Chamber of Com- merce for matching funds of $2,750 ' for sign. The council asked for more details on both requests. Executive Director Bruce I Fullmer reported that a SuperHost training course under the tutelage of Debbie Pollock is currently underway under-way at Panguitch High School, with students scoring very high on interim testing. Pangutich High School Principal Ted Chidester recently re-cently completed the trainer's course at Brian Head. The Travel Council See Travel Council Page 8A i j Travel Council From Page 1 is planning another training session in Panguitch for businesses which will also be open to the public Jan. 28-29 with two four-hour classes, 1-5 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. The place is to be announced. Similar classes will be scheduled for the Escalante area. The travel council will participate partici-pate in the southern California Travel Show scheduled for January 4-12 in Anaheim. This year it will be the responsibility of Garfield County to host the Color Country booth. Funding for the manpwer will be paid for by the Color Country Coun-try Travel Council. Particpating for the full 10 days of the show will be Boband Grace Benfield, and John aand Diane Houston, Kenny and Randi Miller, Bruce and Diane Fullmer and Stan and Lana Foy will split the second shift for the 10 days. The Garfield County booth will be manned by Jean and Spring Seiler for the full 10 days of the show; splitting the second shift for the 10 days will be Howard and Susie Fincher, Barry and Celeste Bernards and Bill Herder. Jean Seiler told the.council that accommodation guides for 1992 were ready for reprinting in time for the Anaheim show. He reported to the council on a recent Grand Circle Association meeting at which he was elected secretary, representing Rubys Inn. Other officers of the group include Becky Brown, Karlyn Bunting, and Matt Creamer. Directors Direc-tors are Kit Law, Gerald LaFont and Leif Johnson. Seiler's monthly reportto the travel council, read by Travel Council Chairman Bob Benfield, said that FAM tours for 1991 had been completed. They included Japanese tour operators, Taiwanese tour operators, AAA Arizona, Grand Circle tour operators, press, and Danish journalists, all focusing on travel opportunities in the area during the shoulder months. Upcoming Up-coming FAM tours include a winter Grand Circle press and tour operators opera-tors in January. Seiler's report said the county is working with Ski Utah to encourage encour-age cooperation with their journalists journal-ists interested in the national parks to visit the area. The first was to be from England on Dec. 19. He said the county is also in the process pro-cess of organizing journalists for the winter in cooperation with Color Country to continue snow-mobiling snow-mobiling promotion. The county also hosted the editor of Mountain Bike magazine prior to the deer hunt, introducing him to the Powell Pow-ell Point, Bryce , Brian Head and Panguitch Lake areas. Seiler met with the new director of state parks and recreation in Cedar City to discuss the county's progress with snowmobiling development. devel-opment. He reported that the director direc-tor showed enthusiasm and support for the county's program. The state parks in cooperation with the travel regions are currently producing a new series of snowmobile maps for the entire state. The county has been staying involved in the process pro-cess and Marv Bell of Creative Marketing has been attending the meetings in Salt Lake City. Mailouts by Rubys Inn on the winter update used to promote the Winter Festival have begun. The update is also available in stores in the Wasatch Front area, with ads placed in the TUNA News for the past three issues to continue through February. The Wasatch Sports Guide has also included the event in its calendar along with paid ads. Announcements of the festival will also be included on KSL on the travel show in late January and KALL radio on the new snow show. Updates will also be distributed dis-tributed in Las Vegas. Seiler will supply complete details on the winter win-ter festival at the next travel council meeting set for Jan. 30 in Panguitch, Pangui-tch, the place to be announced. The 800 number provided by the county to respond to queries regarding regard-ing reservations and information is now located in Tropic at the Seiler residence where it is answered by Seiler's wife Spring. An increase in calls is expected in March as questions begin to come in about the upcoming season. In attendance at the Dec. 19 meeting at Rubys Inn in addition to Benfield, Fullmer and Seiler were Travel Council members John Houston, Rod Syrett, Kenny Miller, Stan Foy Howard Fincher, Wayne Ross and Barry Bernards. Guests were Marv Bell, Lou Good, Carl Guillette, Mark VanEvery, Susan Leslie, Eileen McKee and Jan Welkins. |