Washington County, Oregon

About This Project

The Pulse Group was retained by the Washington County Commissioners to assist them in the redevelopment of the County’s tourism/destination marketing investment strategy, resulting from an approximate (3) three percent increase in the lodging tax. As part of the scope of services completed, we conducted 25 interviews/discussion groups with high-profile government, trade association and business representatives locally and state-wide, reviewed background information and tourism related plans/reports previously developed by other consultants/industry representatives and undertook a best practices review of the lodging tax investment strategies of ten other comparable jurisdictions. The objective of our work was not to recreate tourism related business strategies, which were already well-conceived and documented through the County’s “Tourism 2015 Strategy”, but rather to recommend potential investment strategies, operating structures and functional capabilities that had the greatest potential for moving this plan forward, toward successful implementation. As a result of our work, the governance of the Washington County Visitors Association was reorganized to achieve greater representation, a number of tourism operating programs were refined and a tourism grant program was implemented.