The Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau will deal directly with people wanting guided tours of the Vicksburg National Military Park and tours of the city and assign guides, the board of directors said Thursday.

In a 6-1 vote, the board OK’d the move under an agreement between it, the VNMP and the Vicksburg Guides Association.

Board member Shirley Waring opposed the agreement, objecting to a provision prohibiting guides from directly contacting a bus or tour company about providing services unless they were contacted by the company.

“These are private contractors,” she said. “The VCVB should not be mandating policy for them. They shouldn’t require that.”

Waring also said the guides needed more time to study the recent ammendment to the agreement.

Board member Myra Logue, a member of the Guides Association, also opposed the agreement, but was told by VCVB Board chairman Annette Kirklin to recuse herself from voting because of a conflict of interest.

The 20-member Vicksburg Guides Association provides information on the history of the Siege of Vicksburg during guided tours for park visitors and tour groups. They also give custom tours and tours of the city.

Guides charge fees from $40 for a two-hour car tour to $80 for a bus tour, and $20 per hour for every hour over the two hours.

VCVB executive director Bill Seratt said the bureau, which books the tours, assigns a tour guide on a rotating basis unless a tour company or group requests a specific guide.

He said the VCVB has never had any issues involving the guides, adding, “There have been some policies about the tour guides written down, but we have never had a formal, written policy that outlines things step-by-step.”

He said the agreement had been under development for some time as part of the park’s policy manual. Guides Association president George Millett said the members approved the agreement in April.

In other action, the board:

• Read a report that showed hospitality tax collections for March were $121,714, up $32,396 from March 2011’s total. Occupancy rate totals for April were 72.4 percent, up 16.2 percent from April 2011.

Seratt said the tax collections are still being driven by people working on the outage project at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station in Port Gibson who are staying in Vicksburg, but added other tourism destinations in the state are also reporting hospitality tax collection increases.

The VCVB is supported by a 1 percent sales tax assessed by hotels and restaurants in Vicksburg and Warren County on all rooms and food and beverages.

• Heard from board member Lamar Roberts that the transportation museum in the old Levee Street Depot will have a program in July on the battles in the area that occurred before the Siege of Vicksburg. The program is based on paintings outlining the activities of the CSS Arkansas, a Confederate ironclad warship.

• Approved the minutes of the April 19 meeting.

• Approved the financial report.

• Aproved Seratt’s report.

• Approved event promotion grant program guidelines for fiscal 2013.

The VCVB provides grants of up to $15,000 to help promote programs events that bring people to Vicksburg.