The Rockport City Council directed staff Aug. 6 to consolidate hotel-occupancy-tax (HOT) advertising under the city and to proceed with a revised set of award recommendations for non-advertising requests from local organizations.

Staff told the council that total HOT requests exceeded available projected funds (requests totaled about $1.6 million; staff projected HOT revenue near $1.2 million and recommended allocating roughly $700,000 for city-run advertising). To fit the remaining award pool, staff removed advertising line items from applicants’ requests and applied an across-the-board percentage reduction to the remaining non-advertising requests to close an $81,000 shortfall. The specific percentage used for that equal reduction was 13.93% (applied to 14 recipients whose requests included non-advertising items); staff produced a revised award printout listing each entity and the adjusted award amount.

Under the approach council approved as direction to staff (not a formal adoption by ordinance on Aug. 6), the city will hire or contract an advertising professional to run consolidated marketing campaigns for the peninsula, create an oversight board that will include local stakeholders and develop performance metrics (geofencing, attendance analytics and tourism studies) to measure outcomes. Council members said they want the new board to include representatives from tourism, hospitality and event organizers and to set consistent destination messaging.

Councilmembers and stakeholders discussed transition timing and the risk of a service gap if the city assumes advertising too quickly; staff proposed a hybrid approach and said they would work with the current Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) operator (Shelley) to ensure continuity while the city forms an oversight board and hires an advertising professional. Staff said an ordinance and board-application packet will be prepared for the August/September agenda cycle; council indicated support for staff to proceed but did not adopt a final ordinance Aug. 6.

Staff distributed a revised award list (non-advertising amounts only) and summarized proposed awards, including payouts for entities such as the Texas Maritime Museum, the Rockport Center for the Arts and other local festivals and nonprofits. Council emphasized that advertising formerly requested by organizations will be centralized so the city controls the destination advertising strategy across a wider peninsula audience.

Staff will return with an ordinance to create the oversight board, a job description for the advertising professional, draft contracts and a detailed plan for the October–December marketing cycle. Staff also listed next steps to purchase geofencing analytics and conduct a tourism study to measure attendance and origin data for events.