A first quarter Colliers SC Tourism Report shows the City of Myrtle Beach dead last in the state in tourism. This despite the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber having the largest tax funded advertising budget in the state. The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce spends $51 million annually promoting tourism.
The Myrtle Beach area came in at 56% hotel occupancy, which is dead last in the state.
According to the last time SCPRT was willing to report numbers, the Myrtle Beach area does approximately 12 million tourists annually. However, MBACC puts those numbers at 20 million. This discrepancy caused the state agency to discontinue its reporting for largely political reasons.
At the 12 million annual visitors to the city provided by SCPRT, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce spends approximately $4.25 on promotions for every tourist who visits the city.
However, recent reporting by MBACC indicates tourism will be off by 20% this July 4th holiday.
Hilton Head spends $3 million annually marketing the Beaufort/Hilton Head Area. The Hilton Head area came in at 67% occupancy.
If every ad tax dollar collected was spent on advertising, the Charleston S.C. Chamber spent just over $19 million promoting the City of Charleston. Records show that not every dollar was, in fact, spent on marketing. However the Charleston Chamber operates under a veil of secrecy as we explain below. Charleston came in at 78.9% occupancy. Charleston was the highest reported occupancy city in the state.
As for the Columbia, SC Visitors Bureau, in 2022 Columbia City Council decided to split its $2.5 million in accommodation taxes differently. While members voted to fully fund the Lake Murray board’s 15 percent, about $375,000, they reduced Experience Columbia’s share to 75 percent, about $1.6 million, with the intention of reviewing what other uses the city might have for the remaining $1.9 million. Columbia, SC came in at 70.1% occupancy. Columbia was the third highest occupancy city in the state, despite spending only $1.6 million annually.
While Greenville, SC collects over $28 million for ad dollars, this area is also tight lipped about how and where those monies are spent. Greenville/Spartanburg came in as the second highest occupancy city in the state posting 71.5%.
NO TRANSPARENCY USUALLY MEANS MISAPPROPRIATION – Jay Bender
A 2018 S.C. Supreme Court ruling exempted organizations, such as Explore Charleston and VisitMyrtleBeach (the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber’s promotion arm), from sharing their financial records with the public. To hold these organizations accountable, local governments were required to obtain financial documents from them and monitor their spending. Local governments that provide designated marketing organizations with money are subject to the Freedom of Information Act, however.
Millions of dollars in tax money have been spent around the state in secrecy as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
The issue has become increasingly problematic for some of the local governments Explore Charleston represents. Isle of Palms officials have publicly demanded more transparency and complained that they aren’t receiving their fair share. The organization is being sued by a Port Royal resident, who is demanding receipts. Outside of Charleston, similar debates have erupted in Berkeley County and Blythewood.
The resident in question resigned from the Isle of Palms advisory board because she believed Explore Charleston was not addressing the island’s needs.
“We have no say in what is given to Explore Charleston,” she insists. “We have taxation without representation.”
Ad dollar revenues for City of Greenville and Greenville County came in at $28 million
The nonpartisan League of Women Voters of South Carolina also views it as a problem, according to Lynn S. Teague, Vice President. The public should know exactly where that money went, and they should know it in advance. “Anytime public money is involved, there should be real transparency.”
According to Jay Bender, a media lawyer who is an expert on the state’s Freedom of Information Act: “When public money can be spent without oversight, it is more likely to be misappropriated.”
Explore Charleston and other tourism marketing organizations have experienced broad growth across South Carolina and America in recent years. Their ability to draw tourists and investment has significantly bolstered the economic situation of certain localities and states. A recent survey conducted by Oxford Economics showed that when advertising groups cooperate with monetary development functions, they are far better equipped to obtain new initiatives, corporate moves, and knowledgeable workers.
While some critics remain uneasy about the veiled nature of these promotional practices, the amount of accommodation tax money has increased without much explanation.
Leaders from the Isle of Palms, Berkeley County, Columbia and Blythewood have all expressed concern over tourism funds. Berkeley County pulled accommodation tax money from its Chamber of Commerce in 2022 due to lack of transparency in spending. Some leaders from Columbia are advocating for a portion of the tourism marketing budget to be used for park restoration. In addition, people from Blythewood still harbour suspicions after an accountant uncovered that the local Chamber of Commerce had misused tax money and provided puzzling financial reports.
Myrtle Beach City Council and Mayor Brenda Bethune have also hinted at reallocating a significant portion of the $24 million the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce receives annually in Myrtle Beach Tourism TDF tax payer funded dollars.
According to a FRONTLINE PBS article: With the help of 18 community news organizations, The Charleston Post and Courier has investigated questionable conduct by government officials throughout the state for the past two years. Resulting uncovered stories have demonstrated how inefficiencies, overspending, and misuse of taxpayer dollars can be caused by a lack of government oversight and diminished transparency with public funds.
Readers sent in tips asking Uncovered reporters to investigate Explore Charleston after its 2019 federal financial filings revealed that the organization had about $2 million in an offshore account.
In an interview with The Post and Courier, Explore Charleston CEO Helen Hill readily admitted that the idea of opening a Cayman account “sounds shady”. However, she explained that the purpose was entirely legal. As part of the financial arrangement, her agency helped British Airways launch regular nonstop passenger service between Charleston and London. In 2019, the service was started, but was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic the following year. It has since not been resumed.