Funds for Art & Culture, which will Improve Bend’s Economy, Created with New Room Tax Measure

The Bend TAPS initiative proposes to do something very important for the City of Bend—it seeks to include, for the first time, a permanent source of support for Cultural Tourist organizations working within the tourism industry.

Who is the Cultural Tourism Industry? We are a collective of non-profits who manage cultural assets, work in creative industries, and offer cultural activities that play a significant role in the development of both our community and our economy. Our cultural heritage and arts community are the sum total of our human expressions about our lives in this place, what we hold dear, and what makes us proud. They are the things that show up in photographs and ‘check-ins’ on social media. They are the things we can’t wait to show our friends and family when they come visit.

One of the first expressions of public art in Bend is still the most relevant: the sculpture of a figure sitting on the bench with the empty wallet. How many photo albums do you think he is in, with Uncle Charlie or your kids or your cousins, parents, best friends, draped over his shoulders and sharing his dismay at the empty wallet? I’d hate to hazard a guess. What’s in that wallet or not in that wallet is what brings us all to this table this evening. In one piece of art, there are so many conversation points.

But you all already know that. As council members, each of you supports the art and culture community in your own way. The issue here is what role do we, the arts and culture community, play in the tourism industry, and does that role deserve a seat at the table. The answer is: absolutely. Here are two important reasons why:

One: We all know that Bend’s First Friday is a popular venue. How many businesses partner with artists and musicians during the event? When conferences come to town, baseball tournaments, visitors coming to see graduation ceremonies, how many art and culture events and activities and sites will be presented to its participants as things to take part in during their stay? How many families will hit the High Desert Museum or my Museum? Our flyers, brochures, and schedules of events fill concierge desks all around town.

The Des Chutes Historical Museum is currently working with members of the Model A Ford Club of America, who is bringing their regional conference to the Riverhouse this fall, on special discounts and car show opportunities to enhance their visit and create experiences that will make them leave their conference wanting to come back and happy to recommend our community as a good place to host a conference, and likewise, that we are a great Museum to patron while you are there. For our partnership with McMenamins, we pack the Father Luke room once a month for History Pub, and dozens of times I have spoken to visitors from out of town who stumbled upon us and remarked at how wonderful it was to see such presentations in a pub.

In short, Cultural Tourism makes up a large share of what you will find on the “Things To Do” pages on a wide variety of websites promoting vacations in Bend. We already ARE at the table, putting together programming and “to-do page” worthy events and exhibits, and we are doing it largely on the economic instability that is the non-profit world.

Two: Every day at the Des Chutes Historical Museum we greet visitors who are called ‘cultural travelers’. In the past three months, the Des Chutes Historical Museum said hello to people from 17 states other than Oregon as well as visitors from England, Australia, and South Africa. 2/3rds of our visitation comes from out of town visitors on vacation.

According to a recent study completed by the Oregon Heritage Commission and supported by Travel Oregon, there are 47.5 million cultural travelers in Oregon and its feeder markets. The report estimated that cultural travelers spent 19.6 billion during recent visits to heritage and cultural sites in Oregon.

A cultural traveler is defined as “a person who travels to experience the places, people, activities and things that authentically represent the past and present, including cultural, historic and natural resources.” 83 percent of leisure travelers to Oregon consider themselves a ‘cultural traveler’.

Of the cultural travelers surveyed, 39 percent said they were willing to pay MORE for lodging that reflected the cultural heritage of their destination.

But the most important message at the end of the Oregon Heritage Commission’s work was that many tourism markets in Oregon are missing the opportunities to invite these cultural tourists into their world. We are one of them.

Several communities in Oregon invest portions of their TRT in cultural tourism by passing it to the organizations who create, sustain, manage, and administer cultural tourist sites. We are not inventing the wheel or breaking the law. As a historian, I spend a good deal of my time debunking or proving urban legends, and the illegality of TRT supporting the arts and culture is one to debunk. Since the 1990s, Lane County has dedicated 10 percent of their TRT strictly to operating the Lane County Historical Society. How wonderful to call out the tax based support of a local historical society in the tax code as “significant to the cultural tourism of Lane County.”

Bend TAPS is an investment. A 2 percent investment that when multiplied by all our visitors becomes powerful opportunity. There are a lot of very influential odds-makers signed on in support of Bend TAPS, people who work every day in the tourism market, talk to our visitors, understand their needs, understand our community. We are all reading the signs and saying ‘invest here.’ It is an investment in ourselves, our community, right here, right now. Over 150 of those odds-makers are saying this is the right thing to do, people I am unbelievably proud to have my name next to.

In the end, every resident in Bend is affected by the health of the tourism industry. My museum to the Oxford Hotel to the people who pump our gas to the wait staff at our restaurants or the staff at Wabi Sabi or Roberts or Goody’s. We are a symbiotic unit that works together to market ourselves, recommend our stores and museums to each other, share each other’s brochures and flyers, as well as sharing the power to decide whether or not a 2 percent increase in TRT offers more opportunity than it does risk.

To testify at the public hearing on this proposal arrive at 7pm at Bend City Hall on Wall Street and sign-in. For more information visit:  www.BendTAPS.com