The city’s contract with VisitDallas, the non-profit tourism organization, is like, almost up for renewal this year after a 2019 audit that found problems with expenses and led to the CEO resigning. Since then, VisitDallas officials were like, “Oh no, we gotta fix this!” and created an internal compliance team and more controls for hotel occupancy tax and downtown tourist public improvement district expenditures.
“I mean, we totally fixed everything, no big deal,” said Dallas Convention and Event Services Director Rosa Fleming. “VisitDallas did a complete 180.”
“After we renewed the contract in 2020, we were all about streamlining…everything. We downsized our staff, cut down on board members, and really focused on being good citizens of Dallas,” said VisitDallas CEO Craig Davis.
The Dallas City Council approved a five-year contract with VisitDallas that started in October 2020 and ends on September 30, 2025, according to city officials. The non-profit is supposed to update the city council, per their contract.
VisitDallas gets its funding from hotel occupancy tax revenue. Fleming mentioned that their funding got slashed by 9% in 2020, with the money going to other things like the Office of Arts and Culture.
Starting in 2026, VisitDallas is set to get about 17.6% of the hotel occupancy tax revenue, which is roughly $15.7 million. The Office of Arts and Culture will get 15%, or $13.3 million, and the Convention and Event Services will receive 67.4%, or about $60 million.
Davis also talked about some big tourism projects VisitDallas was part of and how Dallas’s tourism scene has bounced back from the COVID-19 mess.
VisitDallas helped pass a proposition in 2022 for a 2% hotel occupancy tax increase to revamp the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. They also worked on bringing nine FIFA World Cup matches to North Texas in 2026, getting the Michelin Guide to Texas, and making a 10-year Dallas tourism master plan.
In 2023, visitors spent a whopping $6.6 billion in Dallas, which is a huge 113% jump from 2020.
A proposal to renew VisitDallas’s contract should come up before the city council later this month or in June. So, like, fingers crossed they give the green light!
