When it comes to a consultant’s study of what Natchez can do to beef up its tourism marketing efforts, the public’s already had its sneak preview.

In a Wednesday meeting attended by more than 100 tourism stakeholders, consultant Stu Barash presented the findings of a study the chamber’s Tourism Council commissioned him to perform.

But in a Friday interview, Barash went further in answering key questions about his findings &045; and about what the next steps should be to make them happen.

In his report, Barash stated that the Natchez Convention and Visitors Bureau should be restructured.

Barash said Friday he envisions having an overall president or executive director over the bureau. But he advocates adding subdirectors under the president to handle the day-to-day operations and staffing of specific areas such as tourism, sales and the convention center.

Barash noted that Tourism Director Walter Tipton heads the bureau and said he does not advocate replacing Tipton with someone else &045; simply adding people to handle the details of their areas, letting the director act as the overall leader.

&uot;I just don’t think one person can do justice to all those areas&uot; mentioned above, Barash said. &uot;Get the most qualified people you can find to handle those areas, then let those people build their staff.&uot;

He said the bureau’s organizational chart needs to reflect the new personnel structure and positions, with updated job descriptions in place to make sure that every aspect of the CVB’s mission is covered.

And Barash advocates moving all the CVB and city staff who deal with tourism, conventions and the like to one location.

As it now stands, some employees are located at the Natchez Convention Center, while others are at the Natchez Visitor Reception Center.

&uot;You can better brainstorm ideas when you’re seeing someone face to face,&uot; Barash said.

In addition to restructuring the CVB, Barash recommended funding the bureau’s marketing efforts far above the current level of $90,000 a year.

But how much would the CVB need per year, minimum, to compete with other towns for tourist and convention dollars?

While Barash wouldn’t give a specific figure, he said that according to four-year-old statistics from the Mississippi Tourism Association, other CVBs in the state spend up to 60 percent of their budgets on marketing, compared to 17 percent in Natchez.

More current or specific figures weren’t available as of press time.

Barash did suggest that the CVB’s staff hold a retreat to compile its wish list of the marketing materials they need and the media in which the bureau needs to advertise.

From there, the list could be pared down to what the staff considers the minimum it needs to effectively &uot;sell&uot; Natchez.

And that’s the figure, Barash said, the CVB needs to fund through government funds, grants and private contributions to cooperative advertising.

Although state grant funds are shrinking as Mississippi’s budget tightens, Barash said the bureau could contract with a firm whose job it is to find grants. Another alternative is to seek grants from other agencies, such as the National Park Service.

As part of its marketing efforts, Barash recommended the CVB pay an advertising firm to &uot;rebrand&uot; Natchez, including development of all-new printed materials such as brochures.

The current brochures don’t measure up to the high-gloss materials other communities are producing, Barash said. He recommends that materials full of new photos featuring the best of Natchez be produced.

&uot;Images that capture the essence of Natchez &045; the historic nature (of the city), its river location, the romanticism of Natchez,&uot; Barash said. &uot;People buy with their eyes.&uot;

How much would that cost, based on Barash’s experience in the industry? &uot;There is no magic formula,&uot; he said.

Instead, it would be based on the marketing figures generated by the CVB staff retreat &045; and on the responses the bureau would get from advertising agencies from its request for proposals.

Finally, Barash said that if he had to prioritize his recommendations, the one that’s most needed for Natchez’s tourism efforts to progress is simply harmony. (The second and third priorities are new printed materials and establishing a convention center hotel, respectively.)

&uot;(Natchez needs) harmony,&uot; he said, &uot;between all the tourism entities out there to just get behind the (marketing) plan and say OK, what do we as citizens and tourism folks of Natchez have to do to make this happen?&uot;

That doesn’t mean that the various public and private tourism-related groups must fold into one or stop meeting, he said.

Instead, Barash would have Mayor Phillip West create a &uot;superboard&uot; to replace the current Convention Promotion Commission. The new board, as Barash envisions it, would contain a member from each of the tourism-related groups.

&uot;The current board is six members, but I believe it should be bigger than that,&uot; Barash said.

Barash acknowledges that some recommendations in the study are already being implemented or pursued.

For example, an event marking National Tourism Week is already scheduled. Lobbying for a waiver of the three-day waiting period for marriages has already begun. And the need for a convention center hotel has been stated by city officials, the Tourism Council and other groups.

&uot;Sure, they’ve been discussed,&uot; Barash said of many of his recommendations, which were formulated in part through interviews with local tourism stakeholders. &uot;But what’s been done?&uot;

Barash said once he presents his study to the full Board of Aldermen &045; a study that will contain more information about what other cities have done to boost marketing efforts &045; on Sept. 28, &uot;the mayor’s got to put together a public-private plan to make it happen.&uot;

West has said he’s behind the plan and feels the funds can be found to make it happen.

While Alderman Jake Middleton couldn’t be reached for comment late Friday afternoon, Ricky Gray, the other alderman who attended Wednesday’s Barash presentation, said he agrees with the findings.

In a recent class for certified municipal officials, Gray said the instructor hit on a major point Barash also emphasized &045; that a community needs to stop every once in a while to evaluate its goals, in this case for tourism marketing.

&uot;You need to find out where you are, where you want to go and how you’re going to get there,&uot; Gray said. &uot;The bottom line is, it takes the whole community to make it happen.

When it comes to every aspect of marketing &045; but certainly funding &045; the public sector needs to get the public sector involved, Gray said.

For his part, Tipton said he’s receptive to Barash’s recommendations &045;but would need more specifics to work with.

For example, when it comes to restructuring the CVB staff, &uot;we need to see an organizational chart Š and need to understand&uot; the proposed changes in more detail, Tipton said.

While Barash also suggested the CVB issue quarterly reports to city officials and the public about the results of its marketing efforts, Tipton said extensive reports are given at each month’s public meeting of the Convention Promotion Commission.

&uot;And from a financial standpoint, (we report) to the city,&uot; Tipton said.

Tipton said his main question would be whether each new report would be worth taking staff time away from other activities, &uot;like creating new leads and generating new business.&uot;

However, Tipton said generating a report four times a year, as suggested by Barash, probably wouldn’t take too much time out from other activities.

And although the CVB staff had a retreat four years ago and updates the resulting report once a year, Tipton said he believes another retreat may be in order.

The bureau generates its marketing plan for each year by starting with the suggested advertising plans generated by the Mississippi Tourism Association, of which Tipton is this year’s president.

&uot;They get group rates (on such advertising). We take those group buys&uot; and add other buys with the help of public input, Tipton said.

Tipton said the CVB is reviewing and considering Barash’s recommendations, &uot;But of course some things require a lot more financial resources. We want a lot of things &045; the question is, where’s the funding going to come from?&uot;