The former president of the ATL Airport District believes the state’s response to College Park could have implications for destination marketing organizations across Georgia.
Cookie Smoak served as president of the ATL Airport District Convention and Visitors Bureau from 2013 to 2024. She believes that if College Park’s actions are allowed to stand, other municipalities could follow suit in seeking greater control over hotel-motel tax revenue.
College Park’s process for hiring a new destination marketing organization to replace the ATL Airport District has drawn the attention of industry executives across the U.S., Smoak said.
Smoak has retired from full-time destination marketing and now works part-time as a visitor center specialist with Visit Peachtree City.
“Here’s what really scares me most of all,” Smoak said. “If the state of Georgia does not get a handle on this, this kind of activity is going to spread like wildfire in other cities.”
On Aug. 3, Chris Hardman, president and CEO of the Georgia Hotel & Lodging Association, announced the filing of a second complaint with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. The association is requesting an investigation into College Park’s selection of Destination Must Visit as its new marketing organization. The board typically has a 90-day review period, Hardman said.
City council approved Destination Must Visit in June during a special called meeting while attending the Georgia Municipal Association’s annual convention in Savannah. Mayor Bianca Motley Broom, who did not attend the meeting, has said she is “deeply concerned” about the selection process and believes it warrants “greater scrutiny.”
In a social media post last week on the SpeakUp College Park Facebook page, Smoak wrote: “To see what is happening now is just a crime. It’s the talk of the industry since the ATL Airport District was very respected throughout the industry.”
“The answer lies in the hotel-motel tax being collected by the Department of Revenue instead of the cities,” Smoak told SaportaReport. “If they never got their hands on that money, and it was divvied up to the DMO, there would never be a problem.”
Before leading College Park’s destination marketing organization, Smoak was a director of convention services at the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, where she worked for a total of 13 years. Prior to Atlanta, she was director of sales for the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Smoak said she became concerned in 2023 when some College Park council members sought greater involvement in how hotel-motel tax revenue was spent. She said she denied requests that she believed fell outside the uses allowed under state law.
“Certain council people would start asking for money for projects that were not legal,” Smoak said. “I tell people, I’m not going to be on the front page of the AJC in an orange jumpsuit.”
Georgia law allows designated hotel-motel tax revenue to be used to promote tourism, conventions and trade shows. Smoak said those funds are intended to attract visitors who stay in hotels, visit attractions and spend money in the city.
Tourism product development funds can be used for certain capital expenditures tied to attracting visitors, Smoak said, offering new carpet at the Georgia International Convention Center as an example.
“But [officials] can’t use it for a ward party that is for citizens,” she said.
Smoak believes capital projects such as the Roderick Gay Botanical Garden could not legally be funded by hotel-motel tax revenue.
Smoak also says that during an Aug. 3 city council workshop, Councilwoman Jamelle McKenzie incorrectly described the circumstances surrounding the start of Smoak’s career in College Park.
Smoak said the city’s destination marketing organization was already established when she arrived. She credits then-Mayor Jack Longino with the push to rebrand the organization and more closely tie College Park’s identity to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the Atlanta market.
“I absolutely loved my job. I loved my team,” Smoak said of the council’s decision to end its relationship with ATL Airport District. “We were selling the heck out of the GICC and those hotels. We were seasoned vets, and we knew what we were doing. And they’ve just blown it all up.”
As a council member in neighboring Hapeville, we are very happy with the professionalism, depth of knowledge, transparent monthly analytics, and ROI of the ATLDistrict. We are thankful for their sterling leadership and national reputation as well. I’m equally disappointed by the dubious manner in which CP Council severed ties in the 12th hour in favor of a hastily organized alternate DMO with false references, no track record, and registration in a far away state. The impact of that reckless & ill-onceived power grab needs to be investigated & adjudicated to the fullest extent of the law.