We like the idea of Osceola County moving its Kissimmee Convention & Visitors Bureau to the downtown area of Kissimmee, namely the Courthouse Square, with some staff relocating to the planned nature/visitors information center at Shingle Creek Regional Park on West U.S. Highway 192.

Visitors bureau employees staffing some kind of information kiosk in the downtown core of Kissimmee along Main Street, for example, also might be a good idea and their presence could help bring visitors to the area, helping to put money into the cash registers of local businesses.

As County Commission Chairman Fred Hawkins Jr. said, the lack of funding will limit the county’s choices in terms of relocating the bureau, which has to move because the new museum of military history will be housed in the bureau’s current office at the corner of Bill Beck Boulevard and East U.S. Highway 192.

If the county has space at either its administration building or the Historic Courthouse, both at Courthouse Square, then that space should be used before the county spends any money – whether it be tourist development taxes or property taxes – on buying or renovating a building it doesn’t already own. We’ve seen too many properties taken off the tax roll over the last few years and we don’t need anymore at this time.

We agree that having a visitors information center downtown – as stated by members of the Downtown Kissimmee Area Council – would bring additional visitors to an area where significant redevelopment has already occurred, such as the City Centre, and where more development is expected, namely a commuter rail/bus transit center and an upgraded lakefront.

There is no reason, however, to move visitors bureau administrative staff who do not interact with tourists anywhere other than Courthouse Square. The parking problem there, raised by some as a reason to relocate elsewhere, will be resolved in a relatively short time with construction of a new county parking garage.

Because all of the county’s tourist development tax reserves have been earmarked and because the county needs to subsidize bureau operations from this same pool of money, we must proceed carefully with spending until tourists begin returning to local hotels in larger numbers. The latest tourist development tax report is positive – up almost 7.4 percent for August compared to the same month in 2009. However, we are still down more than 2 percent year-to-date, and that spells “caution.”