National presence times 2 to yield local insights

IMPORTANT VOICES: Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport, both have leadership roles with Washington, D.C.-based  Destination Marketing Association  International. / COURTESY NICHOLAS MILLARD
IMPORTANT VOICES: Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport, both have leadership roles with Washington, D.C.-based Destination Marketing Association International. / COURTESY NICHOLAS MILLARD

The Rhode Island travel and tourism industry grapples with many of the same issues as its peers globally, including how to raise awareness about the value of transportation infrastructure like bridges and airports – and the taxes that feed it.
Enter Evan Smith and Martha Sheridan, two fixtures here in Rhode Island that represent, respectively, the resort area of Newport and the metropolitan destinations of Providence and Warwick. The duo have worked together for years and now will be working even more closely through the Washington, D.C.-based Destination Marketing Association International.
Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport, and Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, have led their destination-marketing organizations for 10 and eight years, respectively. In July, Sheridan finished her yearlong stint as chairwoman of DMAI and remains in a leadership position as past chairwoman, while Smith was named to the 25-member board of directors.
“The fact that little, tiny Rhode Island has two people on this board is notable, because we are making a difference in the travel industry,” said Smith.
“We can go toe to toe with any of the greatest names in travel. … I can stand next to [people from] Orlando, and they say, ‘I love Newport.’ A lot of people think we’re too small, but I’ve got to tell you: we stand among the giants in the travel industry and our voices are heard on the national stage,” he said.
The DMAI has 700 destination-marketing organizations (also known as convention and visitors bureaus) and 4,200 professionals as members, said Michael Gehrisch, president and CEO for the past 14 years.
DMAI leaders work for their respective organizations but must also “make the best decision for the industry” as a whole, Gehrisch explained. Smith is “cerebral” and “thoughtful” and will sift through information when making decisions for the group, he said.
Likewise, Sheridan is “practical, straightforward and has the ability to get everybody together,” Gehrisch said. She used those skills to oversee completion of “Destination Next,” a study issued this summer that outlines strategies for shaping what the future will look like for DMAI’s members.
Smith was invited to the board in part because of his connection to Sheridan, and in part as a tactical move to have both resort and metropolitan areas represented, not only in Rhode Island but in the Northeast, Gehrisch said. Collecting more data and expanding research to better report on the economic impact of taxes on tourism and on local, state and national economies is one way Smith said he hopes to contribute in his new role at DMAI.
“There’s significant economic impact going on,” he said, “[but] we do not have the academic research to analyze and understand it because the numbers aren’t being reported.”
One thing he’d like to measure and study is how many out-of-state versus in-state drivers are paying the gas tax, and what that says about the tax’s ability to fund highway improvements. Another is the yield of the sales tax by town.
Sheridan said she and Smith expect to advocate for continued infrastructure support for roads and airports, “reinforcing the message that when you look at it, they’re not only important to your residents and constituents but also to the tourism industry at large,” she said.
In reference to Destination Next, she said that while in some ways the travel and tourism industry has standardized destination-marketing organizations and the ways they operate, “what this study recognizes is [that] we are not a one-size-fits-all industry.”
Rhode Island generally and the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau specifically can gain a lot of insight from some of the report’s findings, Sheridan said.
What affects the state the most is a lack of dedicated funding for an “overarching statewide branding initiative,” Sheridan said. As a result, “Rhode Island as a whole struggles to capture adequate market share compared with neighboring states,” she said.
Given that, strategies recommended in the report that her PWCVB intends to use include becoming more involved with broader economic development initiatives by working with the R.I. Commerce Corporation, the Providence Foundation and other commissions and departments, she said.
Her organization also will do more to champion the region as a cultural destination by providing visitors with convenient tools that allow them to experience historic and cultural assets here, she said.
“We’ve already started to execute on this strategy with the convening of the historic-attraction community on a regular basis and the production of the new ‘Providence: East Side Walks,’ [a] printed guide and Web page,” she said. •

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