Burlington's rebranding campaign is funded by a $1/room/night "marketing and assessment fee" charged to hotel guests in the city, which the hotels pass on to the Lake Champlain Chamber. This pot of money currently amounts to about $300K.

That fee is on top of the State 9% lodging tax, and Burlington's own 2% tax. (Probably this fee is routinely added to guests' hotel bills, but it may in fact be "voluntary.")

In turn, the Chamber has awarded a $75K destination rebranding agreement to Kansas City-based travel marketers MMGY Global, who will use survey data the Chamber is collecting via Facebook as the basis for an updated city brand.

The Chamber plans to hire a local agency to develop marketing collateral.

The fact that the City of Burlington itself has no money at risk in any of this makes its rebranding perhaps a unique situation.