Tourist Development Council spends time updating by-laws.
by Kathy Foster
In a lengthy workshop Thursday morning, members of the Washington County Tourist Development Council met with Andy Compton and reported an estimated out-of-state economic impact from the recent 2018 Dixie Pre-Majors World Series hosted in Chipley was $531,027.90, with an estimated state sales tax of $31,861.67 collected.
TDC members were informed that the sales tax collection was up approximately 48 percent over the figures given for the 2014 event that was hosted locally. Additionally, the estiamted bed tax collection was placed at $4,620.32, up approximately 29 percent over the 2014 collection figures.
TDC Chair Bill Maphis said after reviewing the figures, that he would like to have more events that would reflect figures impacting Washington County like those provided by the Dixie Pre-Majors World Series.
The TDC members spent the rest of the workshop dealing with working over their by-laws under which they operate and the Strategic Plan for 2018-21.
Members announced the following events coming to the county in the near future, including the following:
- Flea Across Florida Sept. 14th -15th
- Panana City Beach Winter Tour for cooordinators Sept. 21st
- Washington County Heritage Festival Sept. 28th – 29th
- Visit Florida FAM Tour Oct. 16th
- FWB/Destin Snowbird Tour Feb. 6, 2019
- Agritourism Workshop Feb. 21, 2019 at the Ag Center
Then moving into their Regular Meeting, the TDC elected the following board of officers to serve for the coming year:
- President – Bill Maphis
- Vice-President – David Rich
- Secretarty – Dana Phillips
Members also approved revised by-laws for the TDC, as well as the revised PPM plans and the Strategic Plan for 2018-19 and apointed Board member Aaron Miller to a new 4-year Term in Seat No. 6.