The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Vancouver tourism promoters hope they’ve found the cure for the city’s case of mistaken identity.

A new logo, Visit Vancouver USA, and tag line, Discover the Original, will be revealed today in an animated e-mail from the bureau that markets the region to convention parties and tourists. The bureau also will shed its former label, the Southwest Washington Convention and Visitors Bureau.

It will now be called the Vancouver USA Tourism Office.

The former name was too confusing to draw prospective touring groups, because most plan their trips on the Internet these days, said Kim Bennett, president and chief executive officer of the tourism office.

“The problem with Southwest Washington is it is a geographic uncertainty. It isn’t a place on the map” and does not pop up in response to Internet searches, Bennett said.

The new logo’s design pairs a simple white font on a dark background and incorporates a bright green star in place of the letter “A” in Vancouver.

“It really puts a contemporary spin on our community,” Bennett said.

The changes also seize on the moment of afterglow from a spotlight cast on Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics in February. The city’s shared name with Olympic host Vancouver, B.C., caused confusion for tourists, which was highlighted in the New York Times and on television segments for the “ Today” show and other news programs.

“Now that everybody knows where it is, this is the next step for Vancouver USA,” Bennett said of the rebranding scheme.

To come up with the new name, Bennett’s office spent more than a year gathering feedback from area hotel owners, restaurateurs and recreational operators who benefit from the tourism office.

Visitor spending

Visitors spent more than $420 million in Clark County in 2008, the most recent figures available from the Washington state Department of Commerce. It was a 5.3 percent increase over local tourism spending in 2007.

However, the 2009 figures could reflect an industry that was hit hard by recession. Many national hotel and resort companies faltered, an aftereffect of public outrage over lavish business junkets taken by the executives of bailed-out insurance company American International Group Inc., or AIG.

In Clark County, canceled reservations caused average room rates to drop to $72.51 per night in December, down from $78.84 per night the previous year, according to figures from the tourism office.

The figures illustrate how the recession affected the bottom line for local hotels, although the industry reported a 7.7 percent increase in occupancy rates in December over the prior year.

Bennett expects 2009 figures will reflect flat spending locally. She linked the return of healthy spending on travel to economic recovery.

The agency’s eight-member marketing staff attends out-of-town conferences to network with meeting planners from government organizations, health care groups and other businesses.

“Tourism is an economic driver that helps generate taxes and jobs,” Bennett said.

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