March 21, 2024
Salem, OR. – The Oregon Tourism Commission, better known as Travel Oregon, hosted their Governor’s Conference on Tourism March 11th – 13th at the Salem Convention Center. The conference was billed as “the state’s largest gathering of industry professionals,” on the event website. Event sponsors included the Oregonian, The Mill and Chinook Winds casinos, Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association, corragio group, and more. Exhibitors included Oregon Travel Information Center, Albany Visitors Association, Business Impact NW, and others.
The Oregon Travel Commission provides advice to state agencies and the governor and consists of nine members appointed by the Governor. Its purpose as defined by Oregon Statue is to provide advice and develop a comprehensive marketing plan aimed at enhancing tourism and travel in Oregon.
It is funded primarily by the state transient lodging tax. Their proposed budget in their strategic plan for 2023 – 2025 totals $95,396,500 and includes revenue from: Transient Lodging Tax of $91,400,000, Transient Lodging Tax from FY2023 of $1,750,000, and Other Income of $2,246,500.
The conference included a number of speakers and sessions, and was capped off with a performance from a drag queen as the final keynote. The purpose of the segment was billed as helping attendees, “understand intersectional environmentalism and tap into their identities, talents and passions in order to do the best work for people and the planet. Pattie will also help us discover the ways we can be guided by nature in order to move through the work of advocacy and activism, diversify our work in sustainable ways and build a better future for Oregon and the planet.” It goes on to note that, “Pattie’s drag itself is a personal journey of self identity, sustainability, and queering traditional masculine outdoor narratives to explore the natural world.” It is unclear from the description how this key note event aligns with the statutorily defined purpose of the tax-payer funded organization.
The Albany Visitors Association expressed special thanks to the drag performer on their Facebook page.
Travel Oregon’s 2021 – 2022 report on statewide visitor profiles addresses the top activities for those visiting Oregon. It states that “[w]hile in Oregon, two-thirds ate/drank local cuisine, the leading experience by visitors (65.0%). Half added outdoor recreation, such as hiking, biking, fishing, golf, or surfing (47.9%). Shopping (31.0%) and scenic drives/rides (28.3%) amused another large group of visitors.” The category of Attractions and Entertainment under which drag shows would likely be categorized was 7th on the list and accounted for 13.9% of all activities. Within that category ‘Night club/dancing’ as an activity accounted for 2.5% and ‘Bars/pubs’ was 5.6%. Travel Oregon’s own research shows that attending drag shows is unlikely to be an activity for more than a very small segment of travelers.
We reached out to Travel Oregon for information on the cost of the event and keynote speaker fees. Travel Oregon noted that the event was largely funded by attendance fees, but they did not respond to additional questions about costs and performances at the time of publishing this article.
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