Tourism Development Director

City of Washington•City of Washington, NC

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Tourism Development Director performs professional, promotional, and consultative work to manage and administer the Washington Tourism Development Authority within the framework of state statutes governing funding and management. The incumbent is responsible for consulting with local officials, business, and community leaders for the purpose of marketing and promoting the City. Primary focus is to market and promote the City as a destination, marketing the downtown, planning and implementing special events to promote the downtown and related tasks. Duties include development of data, statistics, and publications which favorably portray all aspects of the City; maintaining proper records, reports, and public information for the program. Work requires considerable planning and timely execution of work. Employee must exercise independent judgment and simultaneously must consider financial, socioeconomic, legal, and regulatory variables as they affect the City. This role also serves as the City's Public Information Officer.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree from four-year College or university in Business, Marketing, Public Relations, or related field of study; and three or more years directly related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Valid N.C. driver's license and acceptable driving record
Comprehensive knowledge of principles and practices of public/business administration as applied to natural resources, population, cultural features, and other economic and social matters.
Thorough knowledge of government programs, laws, and services.
Thorough knowledge of office computer software, working familiarity with other technology used to perform position duties.
Thorough knowledge of marketing and advertising.
Knowledge of finance and budgeting.
Ability to interpret and apply broad trends to local circumstances
Ability to make important judgements with regard to varied business matters of significance.
Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing
Ability to plan, coordinate and supervise the work of others
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with municipal officials, employees, and the general public and to exhibit a professional demeanor
Ability to exercise judgment in decisions with confidential information, data, and materials in conformance with laws, regulations, and policies
Ability to maintain moderately complex records and prepare written narrative reports including those requiring statistical summaries and charts
Ability to plan and prioritize work functions, coordinate activities with management and other staff

Responsibilities

Market and promote the City as a destination, marketing the downtown, planning and implementing special events to promote the downtown and related tasks.
Reviews and prepares financial reports and oversees budget; communicates with Board; maintains all Board documents in preparation for financial audit.
Develops marketing plans, brainstorms ideas with ad agency, approves ads and copy, pitches stories to media.
Participates on committees and boards working together to enhance the quality of life and economic vitality of the community.
Coordinates employee work schedules, conducts performance evaluations, provides job instruction, payroll and communicating City directives to staff.
Oversees and identifies civic center maintenance needs; maintains facility for use by renters; coordinates repairs and improvements while maintaining the character of a historic property.
Takes photos and shares timely information regarding events, restaurants, attractions and attributes of the City.
Maintains department website; adds, edits and develops website content; ensures site is working properly; reviews statistics to determine functionality and effectiveness of this marketing effort.
Maintains records of hotel occupancy, visitation statistics, trends from attractions, website traffic, state travel trends, etc. to determine effectiveness.
Provides outreach in the community, with stakeholders and others, to facilitate awareness and understanding of on-going projects by way of regularly scheduled outreach as well as on-going and as-needed press release development; responds to outside inquiries about the City.
Manages the work of department staff.
Performs other duties as assigned.
Maintains City of Washington Facebook, and Twitter; adds, edits and develops website content.
May coordinate and assist with the preparation and response to correspondence received by the City Council.
Participates in crisis management planning and develops crisis communications plan.
Responsible for special events, sponsored by the City.
Gather facts and distribute them to the media.
Write and distribute press releases and newspaper articles to the media.
Prepare City staff and elected officials for media interviews, and handles media relations.
Produce printed and video material about the City and City projects for dissemination to the public.
Communicate important City business both internally and externally through electronic distribution and limited printing of a variety of newsletters, reports, brochures, fliers, etc.