County tourism rates in the spotlight

OSBURN­ — Shoshone County has had to find a new way to bring in outside capital since the mass closure of the mines many decades ago.

Although there is arguably still a lot of work to do, the Silver Valley has had much success with marketing itself as a tourist destination.

From festivals, resorts, and recreation to natural beauty and rich history- there are many reasons to see what our area has to offer.

Both the Wallace and Silver Valley Chambers of Commerce are reporting new highs in terms of visitors to our area.

“Our polling of lodging properties across the Silver Valley finds a widespread 20 percent increase in room revenues over 2016,” Dave Copelan, Wallace Chamber Coordinator said.

Getting more to the ground, Rick Shaffer, Wallace Inn Director of Operations, says that revenue has been up at his establishment compared to the previous year.

Colleen Rosson, Silver Valley Chamber Coordinator, echoed their statements and backed them up by citing lodging revenue numbers that show progress.

She says that in Kellogg alone, there was an increase of over $180,000 in lodging sales from Oct. of 2016 to June of 2017.

This is an average of $20,000 a month increase in revenue compared to the previous year.

Rosson explains that this $180,000 mark will rise further once the totals from the months of July and August are processed and added to it (July’s totals are still being calculated and August has not yet ended).

With these solid positive statistics showing growth, it make sense that the chambers would scratch their heads in confusion when the Idaho Tourism Council reported to them recently that they believe tourism is down in Shoshone County compared to the previous year by .6 percent.

If this reduced rate becomes official, it could threaten the chances of our local chambers of commerce receiving grant funding at their present levels.

According to Rosson, the Silver Valley Chamber currently receives $10,500 in grant funding and the Wallace Chamber receives $11,500.

The eight-person Idaho Tourism Council, apart of the Idaho Department of Commerce, is responsible for distributing grant funds to the various local tourism organizations (such as chambers of commerce) across Idaho and spur tourism.

Funds for these grants come from a two percent state lodging tax that applies to all lodging businesses (IE Hotels, R.V. parks, bed and breakfasts, etc) in the state.

The lodging tax is also how the Travel Council measures the amount of tourism occurring in a particular area, rather than an actual “heads-in-beds” count.

This statistic of generated tax revenue (collected by the Idaho Tax Commission) in correlation with the number of beds available in the local area, is one of the three factors considered when choosing where grant money goes (see diagram that accompanies this story).

The other two factors are the organization’s historic efficiency in using grant funds and participation/ cooperation with other organizations such as neighboring chambers.

With these factors in mind, one can now see why this unexpected dip in reported tourism numbers has caused concern with our local chambers of commerce.

Aside from speculation, Rosson is not sure where the disconnect is between what the chambers have garnered from the local lodging properties and tax revenues as reported by the Idaho State Tax Commission. Shaffer, who is also the At-Large Representative of the Tourism Council, is also concerned by at Council’s report from the Tax Commission on Shoshone County and is endeavoring to figure out the problem.

“We are working with the Idaho Department of Commerce on how we came to this result,” he said.

Shaffer added that Boundary county also showed a decrease while Benewah, Kootenai and Bonner counties posted increased numbers.

Rosson is in the process of gathering all lodging tax statistics from every lodging venue in the county to refute the reportedly low numbers.

Grant funds awarded to the chambers are used to promote events and attractions across the Silver Valley with the sole purpose of tourism staying overnight in our area.