A new tourism chief arrives

Tim Maland, the new director for the Nevada Commission on Tourism, is still getting used to his office in the agency's ornate 1890s-era red brick building on North Carson Street. Maland's first day on the job was just over two weeks ago the same day his office submitted its budget for the next two years.

Maland sees his first priority as helping to push his agency's budget proposal through the upcoming legislative session. The NCOT's budget for 2007 is $21 million, with an increase of $2 million for 2008. Maland says the boost is due to an expected statewide hike in room taxes.

The NCOT receives its revenue from 3/8ths of 1 percent of the state's hotel-motel room tax; however, a decent portion of the agency's annual budget is usually deferred to reserves or other state agencies. Maland feels it's in the state's best interest that his agency uses all the money it is allotted.

"I am walking into a new governor and new legislators," he says. "I would like to try and convince everyone involved that if you give us that money we will return $17 (for every dollar received) in the form of additional sales, gaming and lodging taxes. Don't take from the 3/8ths from us, because we will return you $17."

The NCOT spent roughly $2.5 million on advertising in 2006. If that 17-to-1 ratio holds true, the NCOT returned $42.5 million in additional taxes to the state. In addition to direct returns on taxes, the agency estimates it receives about $27.5 million annually in free advertising through television, feature and news stories about the state.

"The amount that we spend in this agency is less than a single hotel down in Vegas, and we are advertising the whole state, all 180,000 rooms," Maland says. "Even the bigger hotels in Reno spend more in media advertising. You could spend a lot more money and return multiples of that money back in the way of additional taxes. It seems to me that you want to keep investing money in advertising."

Maland sees revamping the NCOT Web site, www.travelnevada.com, as another key element to tackle.

For the fiscal year ending June 2006, the NCOT website had 1.6 million visitors. The agency will roll out a new look in the coming months, but improving overall functionality will be an ongoing process.

"This agency has an unbelievable opportunity on the Web," he says. "The Internet presence and the messages that can be forwarded to the consumers and our partners in the state can be vastly improved through further investments in our Internet product. It will vastly improve our ability to deliver current information in an easy format for consumers to react to and actually book reservations and take action."

As former president of the Reno Hilton, Maland is quite familiar with budgets. Nurturing the NCOT's recommendations through a legislative session is only somewhat new.

"I've not been intimate with it, but if you are in the gaming industry you know what's going on in Carson City," he says.

Maland also wants to find additional resources to send a representative from Nevada to more trade shows and media conferences. Revamping Nevada magazine, published every other month by NCOT, is another agenda item. To that end he has put out print bid hoping to publish the magazine and all the state's tourism marketing collateral at a reduced cost.

"It is a great marketing vehicle in terms of selling the image and the activities of the state," he says of the magazine.