What do you think?

• This full-page advertisement in the Virginia Is For Lovers travel guide cost $14,000. Was it worth the money?

Tourism funding agreement

• 55 percent of the money goes to marketing
• 25 percent goes to research and development, including a local grant program for groups or event organizers who demonstrate an ability to attract overnight visitors to the area.
• 20 percent goes to administrative costs.

CHRISTIANSBURG -- Town leaders now have mixed emotions about a tourism agreement made with the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce in 2005.

But those emotions -- simmering for the past year -- nearly reached the boiling point in a terse exchange between chamber director Shane Adams and several Christiansburg Town Council members at the Dec. 5 meeting.

After council members expressed criticism about a "lack of openness" in how Christiansburg's tourism dollars are spent and about Adams' tardiness in fulfilling a contract agreement that calls for him to appear before the council in April and September each year, Adams had his own sharp comments for the council.

"We are under contract. We are performing a job. The job is to increase tourism," he said, likening his job as a tourism contractor to that of a contractor hired to pave a road.

But Councilman Mike Barber had an equally pointed comeback.

"There is no doubt in my mind that we contracted to meet with you twice a year," he told Adams. "When we contract to pave a road, we see a road."

The clash over a project designed to bring about cooperation among Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Montgomery County has several council members second-guessing the commitment made when the town decided to dedicate 1 percent of an increased transient lodging tax to the tourism initiative. While Blacksburg and Montgomery County also contribute 1 percent, the actual dollars that go into the initiative weigh heavily in Christiansburg contributions because the town has more hotels.

Town Manager Lance Terpenny said the town's owed contributions total about $314,000 to date. The town started paying for the project in December 2005.

Said Councilwoman Ann Carter: "None of us as council people had any idea we would be putting this kind of money into it when we signed the agreement. I just don't see what's coming back to the town of Christiansburg."

The contract comes up for renewal in June, but the date for dropping the upcoming year's commitment has already passed. The contract calls for automatic renewals unless notice is provided at least 180 days before the end of the current term.

What is causing the friction between the council and Adams, who serves as both chamber president and tourism director for the Blacksburg-Christiansburg Visitors Center? A personality conflict? Poor communication? A lack of expertise? Impatience?

Depending on whom you ask, it's all of the above.

Adams, who was hired to lead the chamber in 2002, jumped right into a local tourism effort. With 10 years experience with chambers in Georgia, Louisiana and finally Florida, where tourism was the focus, he said that increasing membership in the Montgomery County chamber and leading a tourism effort would be priorities.

"The initiative started in 2003," Adams said last week. "It was '04 when we finally went to the towns. ... It took us about six months to convince the towns and the county to agree to this."

What Christiansburg, Blacksburg and Montgomery County agreed to was an increase in the transient occupancy tax -- a tax paid by visitors to local hotels -- with 1 percent of the increase dedicated to tourism and marketing services to be provided by the chamber.

Blacksburg raised its 6 percent tax to 7 percent. Christiansburg followed suit, going from 5 percent to 7 percent. Montgomery County raised the tax from 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent. With each jurisdiction earmarking 1 percent of the tax for the tourism initiative, the result was an annual tourism budget of approximately $200,000.

Twenty percent of the budget goes to administrative costs, split between Adams' tourism salary that he says is less than $20,000 and chamber employees who staff the visitors center at Blacksburg's Professional Park Drive.

Adams is also paid a salary by the chamber, although he is not required to disclose it because it's not public money.

Administrative costs for the tourism project are open to the town's inspection. Funds for the chamber and the tourism project are kept in separate banks, he noted.

Adams was perturbed when his Dec. 5 presentation to the council drew a critical comment from Councilman Brad Stipes:

"I haven't seen the particulars of where the money is going," Stipes said then. "I would like to see more openness on the financial standpoint."

Adams said he does provide line item expense reports that are available for inspection. The problem, it turns out, is that those reports haven't made it into the hands of council members.

Terpenny said he had been receiving financial statement from Nichole Hair, the town's representative on the Tourism Development Council, which formed eight months ago. Terpenny had not distributed them to council members."I will in the future," Terpenny said.

Some have called Adams' contentious relationship with the Christiansburg council a "personality conflict."

Dave Edwards, past president of the chamber's board of directors, said criticism of Adams' temperament is not new.

"He may rub a few people the wrong way -- just like the manager of any company," Edwards said. "We've grown in leaps and bounds in the five years he has been director."

Membership in the chamber has increased from 675 to 800, according to Edwards. He said he has supported the tourism initiative from the beginning.

"I think we've bent over backwards with the town, giving them information," he said.

Even some council members agree that without Adams jump-starting a push for tourism, no such effort would exist.

"It's a heck of a lot better than we had before," Barber said. "I don't know that I'm totally disappointed with it. I'm not totally satisfied with it, either."

Adams points to the challenges of working with three government entities that have different demands and different attributes.

Steve Ross, Blacksburg's assistant town manager and its representative on the Tourism Development Council, said he thinks the group has made progress since it started but it's too early to evaluate the success.

Composed of three town and county representatives, three members of the lodging industry, one at-large representative from the tourism industry and Adams, as an ex-officio member, the council oversees and helps develop the marketing activities carried out by the chamber.

"I think we should put effort into trying to draw people into the area," Ross said. "I don't think there's been enough time to evaluate it. I don't think we'll be able to evaluate it for another two or three years."

Christiansburg Councilman Ernie Wade is taking a wait-and-see approach, too.

"I think we just need to be a little patient and see what happens," he said.

Since the tourism initiative started, few concrete accomplishments are visible.

But Adams said he thinks the project is moving in the right direction. A new brochure package -- designed by Aradia Zenobia, the chamber's vice president of marketing and communication -- is now being printed and will be distributed in local hotels and other public places.

Adams said the tourism council also has contacted a marketing firm to conduct a three-month study, beginning this month, to determine the best ways to "sell" the area to visitors. And he said a tourism Web site should be up and running this month.

"We've got all the stuff," Adams said of the area's attractiveness to vacationers. "We've just got to package it."

Although advertising has been "minimal," according to Adams, he said the ads have been effective. He told the Christiansburg council in December that one display placed in the Virginia Is For Lovers travel guide cost $14,000 but generated 10,000 inquiries handled by the chamber.

Some residents, however, are critical of the promotional material. The travel guide ad, for instance, is an artistic photo of a child fairy walking through woods under the caption "Imagine yourself in nature's 5 star resort." It mentions no specific tourist destinations.

"If you look at the ad in the state tourism book, what does it tell you?" asked Meghan Dorsett, a member of the chamber who owns the historic depot in Cambria and has helped launch a tourism campaign for antique dealers in Christiansburg. "I'm sorry. It's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. There are so many things they could have marketed. That really was a lousy ad. The problem here is the folks who work for the chamber don't have the tourism expertise.

"The chamber is doing work for the town," Dorsett added. "There has to be some oversight to make sure that what they're doing is effective."

Adams said that oversight is in place.

"All of those ads are approved by the Tourism Development Council," he said, pointing out that Christiansburg has a voting representative on the council.

The real success of the tourism effort, he said, will be judged by the community.

"Citizens aren't going to see the results until the dollars come in -- and they are coming in," he noted, pointing to a steady increase in hotel occupancy rates.

"I want everybody to know that tourism is a good thing, and we're doing good things," he added, saying his hope is that his work as tourism director will eventually put him out of the job.

"We're very frugal with what we do. One-third of what's been given us hasn't been spent yet," he said. "If we get enough money to hire a director of tourism, I would step aside."