Opinion: LTVA needs to change how it does business

Open letter to the LTVA,

Even though we have verbally contacted the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority before on this matter, we are getting quite disturbed about public dollars going to private companies and costing local businesses additional expenses in promoting their business. Years ago, LTVA made a huge blunder by expending hundreds of thousands of dollars in Internet advertising to promote the privately run ad agency website called virtualtahoe.com. This website was subsequently sold by said agency at a substantial profit to a private investor who has been milking the LTVA name and reputation for years. This company has been charging local lodging providers to appear on that website by stealing traffic from the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority.

If you Google LTVA or Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, you will find sometimes in first position, the virtualtahoe.com link with verbiage indicating Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority LTVA information exploiting what should be a copyrighted trademark. Any CEO or board of directors worth their salt would have had this title infringement removed faster than a New York minute, but after all, LTVA is just another mini-government agency taking tax dollars collected by local lodging providers and delegating their promotional duties to high-priced and ineffective ad agencies.

Jim Morris, president Lake Tahoe Accommodations