Jamestown tourism board sanctions partnership

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

On Monday, Aug. 29th, the Jamestown Tourism Board of Directors collectively sanctioned collaboration between Jamestown Tourism and the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce. Also, the board collectively approved the conclusion of the search process for an executive director.

In August, Jamestown Tourism Executive Director, Searle Swedlund, put forward his resignation. Sept. 9th will be his last working day.

Emily Bivens, executive director of the chamber of Commerce, with the shared resource model, would take over the position of managing the two entities. Jamestown Tourism would have two staff members. One staff member would be for marketing and the other for sites and working with all sites of tourism.

On Monday, Aug. 29th, Swedlund and Bivens talked about the way a partnership between Jamestown Tourism and the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce would look like.

Swedlund explained that Jamestown Tourism’s expenses for operation will increase. He stated that the overall operating expenses budget for Jamestown Tourism has been comparatively flat.

Jamestown Tourism is a publicly-funded entity. It receives funds from hospitality taxes and the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp. Jamestown Tourism in hospitality taxes in 2022, received $336,000 and $75,000 from the JSDC.

The PowerPoint presentation of Swedlund reported that the revenues of Jamestown Tourism’s in 2012 were more than $509,000, about $405,000 in 2019 and $455,340 this year. In 2012, expenditures were about $449,000, $398,000 in 2019 and about $433,000 for 2022.

With a partnership with the chamber, the revenues would enhance to $526,000 with expenditures at $495,000.

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