A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to expand tourism in and marketing of north carolina.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Commerce the sum of twelve million dollars ($12,000,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2016‑2017 fiscal year to be used to promote tourism and expansion of foreign investment and interest in this State by investing domestically and internationally in promotion of sports events, film tourism, retirement destination advertising, and other activities designed to increase the effective geographic reach of activities, positioning the State as a preferred destination for travelers. Funds shall be used primarily for media purchases for marketing and advertising campaigns on television, online video, and print; expansion of direct‑to‑consumer promotion in established markets; and international marketing; however, permissible uses also include contracting with research firms to assess image and awareness and identify the anticipated return on investment for advertising campaigns; ongoing analytics activities to track efficiency of owned and paid digital media investment in generating arrivals in the State; identification and prioritization of geographic areas and audience segmentation by interest showing greatest growth potential for tourism in the State; efforts directed toward retirement, sports events recruitment, and film tourism; and additional development and deployment of online tourism efforts of the State, including social media strategy. Of the funds appropriated in this section, the Department shall ensure the funds are allocated as follows:
Amount of funds	Use of funds
$8,500,000	Domestic marketing and advertising
$2,500,000	International marketing and advertising
$500,000	Sports events marketing and advertising
$250,000	Retiree attraction marketing and advertising
$250,000	Film tourism marketing and advertising.
SECTION 2.  The Department of Commerce shall report on the use of all funds appropriated in this section. The report shall include an executive summary of any research or analytics performed, including resultant changes in strategy, and all identified returns on investment, including (i) tourism gains itemized by geographic area, audience segmentation by market, and use of funds designations given in Section 1 of this act and (ii) gains in efficiency of tourism advertising in generating arrivals in the State. The report is due no later than October 1, 2017, and must be submitted to the Joint Legislative Economic Development and Global Engagement Oversight Committee and the Fiscal Research Division of the General Assembly.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2016.