By Ken Alltucker
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Warren County tourism interests have rejected a deal to contribute $400,000 to a planned super-regional tourism agency that would promote attractions from Northern Kentucky to Mason and beyond.

Despite Warren County's decision, tourism leaders in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky say they remain committed to forming a startup regional group with a smaller annual budget than the $2.5 million to $3 million supporters wanted.

"This is still alive and well," said Mike Conway, chairman of the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau in December authorized nearly $1.1 million for the regional tourism group. It was part of an overhaul that included restricting membership to Hamilton County hotels and businesses.

Northern Kentucky hotels could contribute up to $850,000 a year if fiscal courts in Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties approve a 1 percent bed-tax increase.

Supporters of the regional group expect to ask leaders of the three Northern Kentucky counties to consider the tax increase, Conway said. The Northern Kentucky bureau first must approve the concept at its April 20 meeting.

The Cincinnati bureau has pushed for such a regional organization - recommended by a Chicago-based consultant - as a more effective way to use a limited pool of tourism dollars. For example, tourism bureaus across Greater Cincinnati are now embarking on separate ad campaigns to draw summer visitors. Conway said pooling the dollars among various groups would give Cincinnati a wider reach and attract more big-spending visitors.

But Warren County and other outlying areas worry that a new super-regional bureau could drain too much money from their groups.

"We're not a big enough player to slice that amount off our budget and still do what we need to do," said Shirley Bonekemper, executive director of the Warren County Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It would really change our organization."

The Warren County bureau's annual budget of nearly $1.2 million is generated through a countywide 3 percent bed tax. Cincinnati bureau leaders asked Warren County to contribute 1 percent of the county's bed tax to the new regional venture, but such a large contribution would mean cuts to the bureau's 10-person staff, Bonekemper said.

The Warren County bureau promotes everything from Paramount's Kings Island and Western & Southern Financial Group Masters tennis series to lesser-known festivals that draw visitors from the Dayton area.

Conway expects other suburban bureaus will join the effort if Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky prove it works.

"We'll get more people to join us because they will see that value," said Conway, senior vice president of marketing for the Winegardner & Hammons hotel group.

Tourism leaders in Dearborn, Clermont and northern Hamilton counties all say they support the concept of one large single regional promoter. But they also worry such a group could undercut the interests of smaller organizations.

"Basically what you're asking is that a lot of these (groups) give up one-third of their budgets," said Mark Schutte, executive director of the Northern Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau.

June Creager heads a six-person convention bureau in Clermont County. Its budget is $400,000 a year, and funneling one-third of that to a new group would mean layoffs.

"That affects jobs in our office," Creager said. "I just don't feel at this particular time that the board's recommendation was a good one."

Pat South, a Warren County commissioner and member of the Warren bureau's board, said tourism leaders in Butler and Warren counties depend on visitors from Dayton as much as from Cincinnati.

"The regional approach to tourism would not include a lot of our Dayton market and partners," South said.

E-mail kalltucker@enquirer.com