City hall
McKinney tourism board ends grant program for hotel incentives
The Visit McKinney board voted to move $30,000 in tourism grant money into its hotel-recruitment incentive fund, starting October 1.
The Visit McKinney board voted August 25 to end its tourism grant program and move the money into a fund used to recruit hotel bookings.
The change shifts $30,000 that had gone to grants into a $50,000 incentive pool, creating an $80,000 fund. It takes effect October 1, the start of the next budget year.
Visit McKinney is the city’s tourism office, funded by the hotel occupancy tax. That is a tax paid by overnight guests at hotels inside the city limits, not a charge on residents’ regular bills.
Executive Director Aaron Werner presented the recommendation from a board committee made up of Carol Sullivan, Katie Scott and Brian Medina, along with staff. The committee’s finding, dated June 12, 2026, said the grant program “is outdated and underutilized and has not kept pace with how groups choose McKinney today.”
The numbers drove the decision. Since 2021, the grant program handed out $81,750 and generated 72 hotel room nights, according to the committee’s presentation. That works out to $571 in hotel tax returned to the city. One event accounted for 65 of those 72 room nights.
The incentive fund the money is moving into has done more per dollar, the presentation said. It has generated 2,057 room nights while spending $17,855, and brought back $16,317 in hotel tax, close to a dollar returned for each dollar spent.
Incentives are payments Visit McKinney offers to close deals with groups picking between cities, such as $5 per room night or help covering transportation. Werner said neighboring cities including Plano and Frisco use similar tools, and that groups had been asking McKinney to match them. He said the office does not plan a public campaign around the incentives.
The grant program that is ending is separate from the community event grants run by the McKinney Community Development Corporation.
The motion passed. According to the roll call in the meeting recording, four board members were present: Sullivan, Medina, Jill Thompson Barnes and Juanita Peña. Katie Scott, Keith Gall, Patrick McGuire and Taryne Bolton were absent. The motion was made by Peña and seconded by Barnes, according to the recording.
At the same meeting, McKinney Economic Development Corporation President Mike Kowski announced that Werner will leave Visit McKinney to become a senior vice president at the MEDC. Kowski said the job drew more than 150 applicants in a national search. Werner said he is not leaving McKinney and expects to keep working on tourism in the new role.
The consolidated incentive fund starts October 1, 2026.
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