Tourism efforts surge in Tomball, Magnolia

MAGNOLIA, TOMBALL – Tomball leaders have made significant strides to ramp up community events designed to brand the city as a destination for tourism and family-oriented fun with 51,000 people attending city-sponsored festivals in 2014.

Likewise, Magnolia officials have begun this year to market the city as a hub for healthy living and continue to embrace its designation as an official host City of the Texas Renaissance Festival since 2011.

City of Tomball sales tax numbers have increased from $8.8 million in 2010 to $14.2 million in 2014, Tomball City Manager George Shackelford said.

As more hotels continue to open in the area, the hotel occupancy tax numbers have spiked about 24 percent from late 2012 to 2015, he said, due in part to the establishment of a Tourism Advisory Committee and creation of a marketing director position four years ago.

In Magnolia, sales tax revenue has seen a 30.4 percent increase from $1.84 million in 2010 to $2.4 million in 2014.

Similarly, hotel occupancy tax revenue rose 29 percent over the same time frame from $37,005 in 2010 to $47,729 in 2014, and the city is looking for ways to increase its marketability, said Tana Ross, Magnolia Economic Development Coordinator.