Aurora aldermen will vote on a new, three-year contract with the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The City Council will vote on the agreement at its regular meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers, City Hall, 44 E. Downer Place.
The agreement would be relatively the same as the one the city has had with the bureau for the past three years.
That agreement was a two-year pact, with a third-year option, which the city picked up about this time last year.
Aurora would continue to provide hotel operators’ occupancy tax money to the organization up to $175,000. That is the bulk of the bureau’s funding, although the other nine cities in the bureau – Batavia, Big Rock, Hinckley, Montgomery, North Aurora, Plano, Sandwich, Sugar Grove and Yorkville – pay a share pro-rated to their size.
Also under the agreement, Aurora’s mayor would appoint half of the 26-member board, with the rest of the representation coming from the other towns.
Those were some of the provisions included in a new agreement with the bureau that was struck in January 2014 at a time when some members expressed dissatisfaction with the way things were organized.
Members seem to be generally happy with how the bureau has changed during the past several years, particularly with the appointment of Cort Carlson as director. The bureau has gone through a major restructuring that included a new marketing director and new communications director.
The bureau recently announced formation of a sports alliance seeking to bring tournaments in such sports as amateur softball, baseball, basketball, volleyball and soccer – which normally go to other places around the Midwest – to the 10 cities served by the Visitors Bureau. Already, the bureau has been recognized by a national publication for the sports alliance.
Carlson told alderman at the recent Committee of the Whole meeting that the occupancy, average daily rate and revenue of Aurora area hotels has grown in the past year, and that the bureau’s marketing efforts in print ads, online social media and website page views all increased in 2016.
