Tourism accounts for hundreds of Plumas County jobs in hospitality, restaurants and retail businesses. As tourism replaces logging and mining as a major factor in the county’s long-term economic sustainability, lodging owners are debating how best to market the county to attract more visitors.
Disagreements were on full display at a Nov. 4 Plumas County Board of Supervisors public meeting. At issue was whether to renew the Plumas County Tourism Marketing District. The Plumas County Tourism Association, which serves the western half of Plumas County, is seeking a 10-year extension of the district and an increase of the transient occupancy tax on hotels and other lodging businesses offering short-term rentals from 2% to 3%.
The PCTA, previously known as Feather River Tourism, formed in 2013 as an association of lodging providers in the Lake Almanor Basin, Indian Valley and Quincy areas. Business owners in the eastern portion of the county opted not to join. The local tourism improvement district became a reality in 2020, when county supervisors approved the marketing district for five years.
‘Heads in beds‘
Susan Bryner, association president, said the district has concentrated on the marketing elements that individual businesses are challenged to do well on their own. It invested in a website as the primary way to reach visitors.
The website reached more than 1 million devices in the months from June 2023 to September 2024, she said. It logged nearly 16,900 clicks on “book now,” according to the tourism association. The TOT tax Plumas County collected rose from $1.3 million in 2019 to $2.4 million in 2024, Bryner said.
The whole idea is to put heads in beds, said Tracy Wixted, owner of the Ranchito Motel in Quincy. Her business benefited from the small local grants Plumas County Tourism provided to support local events. Wixted also cited the association website as critical in directing people to her business page while her own website was down.
Riccardo Jacobus, owner of The Drunk Brush and Quincy Courtyard Suites, argued in favor of raising the tourism associations’ TOT tax to 3%. “That gives us the ability to really grow much more and much further at a professional level,” said Jacobus, a member of the association’s board.
‘Holistic and collective effort’
Clint Koble, who has been a Lake Almanor lodging owner since 2013, argued against renewing the marketing district for 10 years. That’s too long and the raise from 2% to 3% of the occupancy tax revenue is too much, Koble said.
He proposed allocating the TOT funds to Plumas County’s four chambers of commerce, Plumas Arts and the Indian Valley Innovation Hub, which shares the Quincy Chamber of Commerce’s visitors center in Quincy. Koble, who serves as advocacy director and secretary of the innovation hub board, proposed that the current 11% TOT tax be charged across the entire county for five years, and that the 2% be distributed to “other participating organizations” that contribute to the tourism industry as well as the Plumas Tourism Association.
Koble argued for including all lodging businesses countywide in the effort to promote tourists. “I want to see a unified, holistic and collective effort that empowers our businesses to connect with our visitors, to sell a great experience,” he said.
At least four other lodging owners opposed renewing the tourism marketing district. Several of them objected that it should encompass all of Plumas County. “It is impossible to advertise and promote only a fraction of the county,” said Shelley Hunter, owner of the Quincy Feather Bed Inn, in a written statement read by Board of Supervisors Chairman Kevin Goss. “I don’t think this is working out as intended.”
Clouding the decision is a complicated process used for lodge owners to vote for or against renewing the marketing district. Participating business owners sign a petition presented to the supervisors to demonstrate support or dissent for the proposed 10-year renewal. Instead of one vote per business, votes are weighted based on revenue. Because that information is confidential, the process raised many objections.
“I have never really liked the voting process of taking the majority of the vote from the most prosperous or well-to-do providers,” said Plumas County Supervisor Jeff Engel. “I don’t really think that’s fair, because it leaves the little guys with no say.”
But Engel’s primary criticism was the cost of redirecting the TOT tax from the Plumas County Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office to the tourism association. Treasurer-Tax Collector Julie White said her office receives around $4,500 from the association to fund the collection process. The actual cost is about $14,000, she said.
If the county can “make it fair for Julie’s office,” said Engel, “then I have no objections.”
The supervisors are scheduled to hold another public hearing Dec. 9 at 10 a.m. in the board room on the third floor of the Plumas County Courthouse.