Oregon City, OR seeking proposals for DMO establishment

Oregon City, OR has issued an RFP seeking a consultant to establish a standalone Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) which will:

• Be a legally structured nonprofit that complies with the US IRS Code
• Operate like a business
• Be under contract to the City of Oregon City
• Under certain conditions, receive annually a portion of the City's Transient Lodging Tax

Quoting from the RFP:

"Oregon City is not seeking proposals on specific strategies as to how to market its tourism industry but what would be the proposed legal business model to eventually implement the community's tourism development strategy...[and] provide guidance on management acumen and organizational operation strategy that will lead the community's tourism program."

Information required from bidders:

• Knowledge of the tourism industry in OR and Greater Portland Metro
• Hands-on experience in structuring a nonprofit that complies with US IRS Code
• Hands on experience with filing state business formation documentation
• Experience with surveys and focus groups
• Experience in interpreting and presenting market data reflective of Portland Metro and its communities similar to Oregon City
• Ability to collect and analyze last 7 years of Oregon City tourism market data
• Ability to explain complex concepts using charts and graphs
• Experience in establishing a DMO-like business model
• Experience in making presentations to officials and stakeholders
• Ability to analyze and present strengths and weaknesses of past efforts to establish a tourism program
• Present a project budget
• Present resume of experience of people to work on the project

Background information (in a nutshell):

• An Oregon City Tourism Strategic Plan was created in 2018.
• A Stakeholder Group was created and first convened in 2020, but stalled because of COVID.
• The Oregon City Economic Development Department is charged with attracting new tourist-related investment in Oregon City.
• It became clear over time that a visitor-facing operation cannot be successful by relying strictly on volunteers.
• Various nonprofit tourism-facing operations in the community have been unable to cooperate effectively.

Successful bidder will be required to obtain an Oregon City Business License and provide a Federal TIN on IRS Form W-9.

The pro forma contract provided with the RFP - which is 76 pages long - is silent on the issue of contractor compensation.

Anticipated contract start date is 28 May 2024, with a duration of about 7 months.

Proposals are due 5 PM Oregon time on 26 April 2024 to:

City of Oregon City

c/o James Graham Economic Development Department

625 Center Street

Oregon City, OR 97045-0304

Timely electronic submissions will be accepted at jgraham@orcity.org

Direct inquiries to James Graham, Economic Development Manager, at 503-496-1552 or jgraham@orcity.org .

Comment: Strongly recommend you have someone go carefully through the RFP before proposing, so as to be aware of all the Oregon City players involved, and the past history of tourism marketing efforts and cash flows. Also I’d say that local agencies very much have the inside track on this contract.