The Manitowoc (WI) Area Visitor & Convention Bureau (MAVCB) - which is funded out of municipal room-tax revenues - is suing the City of Manitowoc over termination of its long-standing contract to provide tourism services, and its proposed replacement by a new municipal Tourism Department.

In Manitowoc - situated on 20 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline - tourism is the #2 industry.

The complaint brought by the MAVCB, the Wisconsin Association of CVBs and others alleges that the City of Manitowoc would be violating a state statute which requires that room tax revenues be spent only with a "tourism entity" which is "a nonprofit organization...that spends at least 51% of its revenues on tourism promotion and tourism development, and provides destination marketing staff and services for the tourism industry in a municipality."

Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickels said that the city hasn't been seeing the "results from the MAVCB" that it wanted - particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic - and that a municipal Tourism Director will be hired by February.

Discussions held in 2021 between the City and the MACVB about revisions to the existing destination-marketing agreement ended without resolution, resulting per Mr. Nickels in the city's decision to take tourism promotion in-house.

After being ordered by the city to vacate its visitor-center building - which the City is now offering for sale - by 31 December 2021, MACVB has moved to temporary quarters and continues to operate as usual.

But that situation obviously isn't sustainable. We'll be checking back for updates.