An agreement between the city and First Tradition, a Houston-based strategic communications firm, was approved by the council at a recent meeting, with the hopes of promoting tourism in Magnolia.

“We all (the Hotel Tax Committee) agreed it was a great idea to bring someone in with First Tradition’s expertise to help us evaluate how we could best market the city and market events and use their knowledge of working with smaller communities to help us more efficiently and effectively use our hotel tax money,” said Hotel Tax Committee (HOT) President Barry Tate.

The HOT committee is made up of members of the community that meet regularly and vote on how to spend funds taken from a 7 percent tax on room rates from Magnolia hotels and motels.

City Administrator Paul Mendes said on average, the city receives $1,200 per hotel, per month from the tax.

The money is strictly allocated to fund events and activities that promote tourism and most importantly, overnight stays in hotels.

Tate said the firm approached the city a few months ago with ideas for the city to better promote tourism.

“What impressed us is that they came to us already with ideas they’re doing with other smaller communities, such as taking advantage of free publicity through state agencies,” he said.

The firm signed a six-month agreement in which the city will pay the firm $1,500 a month for its services, which will include the firm helping to market a specific event that will be chosen later on.

“They will help develop a marketing plan and we’ll go from there,” said Tate. “We’ll use these six months to evaluate whether we like working with them and like their ideas. If so, we’ll possibly do another contract for six months.”

Currently, the firm is in the process of interviewing “key” people in Magnolia and “getting familiar with who we are and what we do and the events that we have,” said Tate.

“They might identify assets we have that we aren’t using or are underutilizing,” said Tate. “Everyone thinks of The Stroll or Hometown Christmas, they may see things we already have to market to bring people into Magnolia.”

Cody Gandy, a senior partner with First Tradition, said the firm is hoping to help Magnolia attract tourists at a low cost.

“The ultimate goal is to help Magnolia get the best bang for their buck,” said Gandy. “We’re helping them produce low-budget activities, events and promotions that really put those hotel tax funds to the best use.”

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