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TDC Minutes 10/24/2022October 24, 2022 MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL MEETING Naples, Florida, October 24, 2022 LET IT BE REMEMBERED the Collier County Tourist Development Council, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 AM in a REGULAR SESSION in Building F of the Government Complex, Naples, Florida, with the following members present: Chairman: Commissioner Andy Solis Vice Chairman: Clark Hill Amanda Cox Susan Becker Kathleen Brock Ed "Ski" Olesky (absent) Councilor Jared Grifoni (absent) Nancy Kerns Councilwoman Beth Petrunoff (via Zoom) ALSO PRESENT: Paul Beirnes, Collier County Tourism Director Colleen Greene, Assistant County Attorney Buzzy Ford, Tourism Digital & Social Media Coordinator John Melleky, County Arts & Culture Manager Amanda Townsend, County Museums Director 1 October 24, 2022 Any persons in need of the verbatim record of the meeting may request a copy of the video recording from the Collier County Communications and Customer Relations Department or view it online. I. Call to Order Chairman Solis called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 3. Roll Call A quorum of six was established by those members present in the board room; a seventh member joined via Zoom. 4. Agenda and Minutes A. Changes and Approval of Today's Agenda (No changes) Mr. Beirnes said when they get to the partners recap, they will only hit on some of the September activity due to the hurricane and what's happened in the past 29 days. Vice Chairman Hill made a motion to approve the agenda. Second by Ms. Kerns. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0. B. Approval of prior TDC Meeting Minutes Regular Meeting September 26, 2022 Ms. Becker made a motion to approve the September 26, 2022, meeting minutes. Second by Ms Kerns. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0. 5. Presentations/Public Comment - (3 minutes each) A. Destination Recovery Strategy Mr. Beirnes recapped what occurred since the September meeting: • Last month, we presented our strategic marketing plan, which may have been the shortest -lived strategic marketing plan in history, but the reality is it was built with many assumptive strategic initiatives. • We have to slightly morph and pivot due to the hurricane, so there won't be many significant changes. • One of our biggest focuses was the need to push on the shoulder seasons, so we have a foundation that will carry us well. • Hours after our last meeting, we were putting plastic over our computers due to the hurricane. • With the approaching storm, we recognized in advance the seriousness of it and reached out to our global agencies and social media and paused all social media conversations. • Tonality is everything and we wanted to ensure our strong brand positioning globally was intact. • The morning after the storm, we deployed our entire CVB staff to get them involved and integrated within the Emergency Operations Center. Pa October 24, 2022 • Our county is truly blessed by the leadership of everybody involved there, a team led by Dan Summers. • The CVB team was spread out and addressed everything from accommodations, meals, ensuring the National Guard had a place to stay, cots and food. • Some staff worked out of the Special -Needs Call Center prior to the hurricane to check on special -needs residents and what they'd need. Chairman Solis asked if everyone had been to the Emergency Operations Center. If not, you really need to visit and understand how good the county is at this. He offered to arrange a tour. Mr. Beirnes said he wasn't deployed there during COVID. It's a windowless, massive building that's completely self-sufficient, like the NASA launch center on a TV show. Mr. Beirnes continued detailing what occurred hefore and after the hurricane: • Many staff members worked out of the 311 Call Center, which was set up to take the heat off 911 calls. Buzzy spent a lot of time there. • There were many serious, life -threatening calls that were coming in and some staff were involved with that on a daily basis. • He reached out to all the global agencies. People were calling them, looking for information about what was occurring here because the media was running the same news over and over and he wanted them to have the latest information. • Our staff and agencies weren't posting photos of the destruction. • We also worked with Lee County because this is a regional recovery and we didn't want to position our county in a better light. • We wanted to ensure visitors knew what really was going on. • One of our primary necessities after the hurricane was something the TDC approved during the last meeting, Faneuil Inc.'s Tourism Fulfillment and Call Center Services. The contract specified that if something happened, we aren't able to make those calls, so the Call Center is triggered. The next morning, they took inventory of hotels that were opening, room availability, what the status was, and how deep the impact was. • We had first responders imminently arriving at any moment and they needed a place to stay. • The morning after involved a combination of lack of power and communications, storm surges impacting service and hotels. • It was very concerning because when you are in the EOC, there are no windows and you're only receiving information. • The next day, we were only able to reach about 30 properties of 115, which ranged from hotels to campgrounds, vacation rentals and parking spots for trailers because we didn't know what we would need in the days ahead. • We still make those calls because it's important and needs change daily. We had to find places for first responders, FEMA leaders, FPL crews, Florida Park Department and law enforcement officers, the National Guard, the Sheriff's Task Force, and Comcast communications task forces. • As of Saturday night, 74 of those 115 properties are open for business. • Some hotels and properties aren't open due to digital lines, WiFi and phone lines not working. • We're still trying to evaluate 25 properties. They don't know when they'll open and most are small. The longest could take 90 days. • 79% of our room inventory is open for business, 14% are unknown or we haven't been able to connect with them, 1 % of rooms are closed, and 6% are repairing and coming back. October 24, 2022 • We could be at about 86% of our room inventory within the next 45 days. • The resilience of restaurants that came back quickly was good to see. • A large amount of sporting events were scheduled for early October, so several immediately canceled because many were scheduled days or hours after the storm. • One of our heaviest and most important needs as a CVB and Tourist Development Council is to make sure the economic impact across the entire destination, the 30,000 full-time tourism industry employees, can get by. • Heads and beds is very important, but underlying that is fishing guides, golf, sunset cruises, restaurants. • We cannot lose the fiber of what makes the destination succeed in the short-term, a labor force bleed, and then have to turn it back on. • FEMA reached out immediately for TSA, transitionary sheltering assistance, with its Disaster Relief Assistance Center. • Displaced residents were identified for transitionary assistance through hotels. FEMA doesn't share all those numbers with us, the hotels that accept FEMA vouchers. • As we were making calls to place FPL and law enforcement officers in hotels, we were getting nearly 0 occupancy for nearly three weeks. That's changed as hotels are repairing rooms and are coming back online. • Sheriff's task forces have come to relieve some of the first responders that have been working for a month straight. We were able to find hotels for them. • We had activities planned that were very, very important, including a major global meeting planner conference on October 11 in Las Vegas. He asked Amanda Ms. Ms. Cox to ensure we had a presence there through the Marriott. • We also had a trade industry webinar across Canada and it was important that Claudia continued to have that conversation. She attended and, as a screensaver, she used a photo he took at the waterline of the beach looking at J.W. Marriott, which looked pristine. It showed we were OK in the recovery process. • We also spent a lot of effort on a major event in New York City, Sophisticated Weddings, which is tied to Fashion Week, a star-studded bridal Fashion Week that's a media event. We were the only signature destination featured. • At IMAX, he gave kudos to Visit Florida for providing support and messaging about our destination. They conducted daily calls with 66 CVB representatives statewide and also moved our booth to the front and featured our destination. • We've changed some words on our website to be honest about what's going on. • Everybody wants an answer about when season will be back, when contractors will depart and when rooms will reopen. We're nearly reaching that point. • He's proud of the team and the tourism industry statewide and how collaborative they've been with us. • This will not be a normal year and we will need to be nimble, navigate and be very cautious in the tonality for Southwest Florida. He's certain, despite the hurricane's depth of impact in Lee County, that Lee County will come back in time and elevate Southwest Florida. • With the reconstruction, all of Southwest Florida will be the Riviera of Florida and Lee County is going to continue to do amazing things. • Over the long term, this destination is where people come. We have remained in contact with RSW. The impact of flights coming in and international flights is very fluid and ever -changing, so we're having a lot of conversations and activity. October 24, 2022 [Katherine Peterson, of Paradise Advertising, detailed a PowerPoint presentation, "Hurricane Ian Social Media Strategy. 'I Mr. Beirnes said it's important to show a humble approach about what we went through. Visit Florida is promoting all destinations, not just those impacted by Hurricane Ian. But there also will be a dedicated recovery when the time is right. Vice Chairman Hill said the message about resiliency and how well we're rebounding is very empathetic, but he doesn't want to send the wrong message that we continue to be a neighborhood on Fort Myers Beach that continues to struggle and that we are resilient and strong and we're coming back more quickly. Most people may realize that. Is there a way to get that across? Does this say that? Mr. Beirnes said our messaging is elevating that we're open again. How we say that will probably change each week. We're pivoting as rooms open, so there's an opportunity that is coming. We're changing the message daily. But we will definitely increase that. We're watching beach readiness, water quality and all that. Beaches are the No. 1 thing tourists come here for and we want to make sure that we are ready. We can't promote off the charts today that beaches are wide open, the water is pristine. Mother Nature is still in the final stages of refining. Things will change over time. Vice Chairman Hill noted that we're in a position to be over -budget with TDC revenues. Should we use some overage toward expediting the beach building process? There's an emergency fund that we tapped into. Are we moving as quickly as we can and do we need more funding? Mr. Beirnes that's a great question for Coastal Zoning. We're now in a new year, so the assigned budget is there to tap. They have been focused on the recovery and the cleanliness of the beaches, but there's still a lot of work to do to remove sand that was pushed up. It will take time and multiple sweeps to ensure storm sediment isn't underneath the sand. But over the last two weeks, the cleanliness of the water significantly improved. He will bring that up with Coastal Zoning. Chairman Solis said that the Friday after the hurricane, he drove from Wiggins Pass down to Clam Pass. They're working through the process on how much we will need for beach renourishment. They have to wait until the end, according to Gary McAlpin (of Coastal Zone Management). The surveying process is already starting. But they have to wait until it settles down on its own before they start that process. The beach looks very wide, but a lot of that has to do with the loss of vegetation and dunes. Staff has a plan. They're waiting for the beach to settle into what it's going to be from now on so they can start that process. That will be forthcoming. They're going to survey it all. That's at the top of the priority list and we should be getting information soon. Mr. Beirnes said there was a lot of activity last year, including $14 million worth of sand renourishment, and a lot of dredging. He was upset over the loss of sand and dredging work after the hurricane. Mn Melleky detailed the Arte Viva! celebration of Hispanic arts and culture: • The yearlong iArte Viva! celebration is supported by the Collier County Board of County Commissioners and presented by the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau. • It puts a spotlight on the rich and vibrant Hispanic culture of our community that will be brought to life by various non-profit organizations, local restaurants and hospitality partners. • It will showcase arts from all around the world and the county's and Southwest Florida's rich culture. 5 October 24, 2022 • Arts and culture are vital to all who live, work and visit here. It's important, especially now, in terms of recovery, because it's a way for people to heal and the arts organizations are really starting to work on that. • Naples Players had its opening two weeks ago and collected cans, food and other items with a partner for people hurt by the hurricane. • Artis-Naples is opening and allowing first responders and others affected by the hurricane to get tickets to shows between now and year's end, so it's a way for the arts to show they're here for support. • The arts and culture sector employs over 9,200 people in Collier County. A subset of that creative sector is the non-profit arts and cultural organizations, their programs and offerings, which have an economic impact of over $107 million annually. • They got together to work on an arts and cultural plan a few years ago. iArte Viva! helps fulfill one of the main goals of that plan, to establish all of Collier County as a cultural destination, including the development of a countywide festival. • We've been working collaboratively with arts and cultural organizations to make this a reality. • iArte Viva! programing will feature visual arts, photography, music, dance and unique experiences that will take place at various locations throughout the county. • He thanked the organizations that made it a reality: Artis-Naples, Collier County Museums, Marco Island Historical Museum, Gulfshore Playhouse, Gulfshore Opera, Marco Island Center for the Arts, Naples Art Association, Naples Art District, Naples Botanical Garden, Opera Naples, Naples Players, and our first restaurant, Felipe's Mexican Taqueria. • Aspects of the iArte Viva! festival are displayed on the BCC chamber walls, including art work, photography, sculptures, events and performances. • Jamie Butler, managing editor of Gulfshore Life, wrote about iArte Viva! in their new Arts Guide, writing: "The shining star to me is Collier County's iArte Viva!, a celebration of Hispanic arts and culture, with about a dozen of arts organizations participating." • This is something that will be important in the coming year to help with our recovery. Mr. Beirnes noted that he received a message from Naples Botanical Garden that the Stickworks art weathered the hurricane and looks good. He noted that the Paradise Coast Sports Complex presentation they are about to hear also will be presented to the BCC. B. PCSC Presentation [Adrian Moses, general manager of Sports Facilities Companies; Dave Wasson, marketing manager] Mr. Moses detailed a PowerPoint presentation and made the following points: • The Paradise Coast Sports Complex was booked for the past two months and lost events prior to and after the hurricane. They rebooked some and now it's back at capacity. • The past few weekends, they were full to capacity after replacing some tournaments with events. • Three goals are: local programing and providing the PCSC to the local community; economic impact through tournaments and traveling events; and providing the PCSCO for cultural events. • Marissa Baker is at the Oklahoma conference representing Collier County. • Sports Facilities took over PCSC two months into the fiscal year and worked to try to get 12 months of revenue within a 10-month period but didn't hit the revenue target we wanted. We worked extremely hard and got over the $1 million revenue, a huge target for us. • Sports Facilities maximized events they inherited, so the year -over -year comparison is good. • From event to event, we ran events with a profit, partly due to our food and beverage department creating a revenue stream that we're capitalizing on in our business plan. on October 24, 2022 • We want people to know we're more than a sports complex. We're a facility driving revenue from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., not just in the evenings. • We made over $1 million in savings year -over -year compared with the previous fiscal year. • We saw an exponential increase in visitation, partly from the impact and rebound after the pandemic. • Credit goes to the marketing team led by Dave and Jackie and our head office, which put together a robust plan to tell our story, as well as the number of participants, spectators, people coming to The Cove, using the gym and an increase in general. • The St. Matthew's House food drive at PCSC also brought people there. That event was set for November, but there's a food drive at the PCSC today that's expected to feed 400-600 families. • Many people enjoy The Cove during the weekend for sunset Saturdays. We see that number increasing as the size of the facility increases with the number of fields. • There's still a need for more fields. We had to cancel some games due to summer weather and we're at full capacity with the fields we have and will be at full capacity with more fields. • Collier County Public Middle School Soccer is coming back in January. • We'll be introducing more self -operated programming. • We've been working with Collier County Parks & Rec to find gaps in local programing, such as leagues, adult leagues and sports leagues, so we can provide recreational opportunities. • We're continuing to increase our Factory gym usage by bringing in trainers, programs and classes, such as yoga. • We're working with an organization to bring in spin classes and other specialized classes. • We're planning on booking tournament events. We're not just a soccer facility. We showed this weekend that we can hold football games and we're focusing on lacrosse and introduced rugby. • There are some cycling races that are coming. • Because the hurricane impacted the City of Naples, we will be hosting the Thanksgiving Day Run, which Gulf Coast Runners usually holds in the city. • We've been able to attract more football events and are working with Steve and his team to identify the best groups to work with us. • A huge upcoming event is the FBU nationals in December 2023. • Many cultural events booked for October were canceled due to the hurricane, including the Shy Wolf Sanctuary's annual event, Wolf Fest. More than 1,000 tickets were sold. Although we lost the opportunity to capitalize on that weekend, that revenue will be realized this fiscal year. • Our main responsibility is to ensure we meet our financial targets of converting the ancillary revenue from events. • If you came to PCSC this weekend, you can purchase all types of food, such as hotdogs, hamburgers, salads, subs, pizzas. Catering staff comes in and it's an incredibly important revenue for us. • Jeff Walters, our business development director, has regularly brought in sponsorship deals that are out -of -this -world in terms of revenue. We're close to announcing the largest sponsorship deal in Sports Facilities' history tomorrow. • Collier County and Marissa Baker have been listening to us and supporting us in a great way and we now have a robot painter for our fields, which saves a lot of money. • We now have a place for soccer -goal equipment, which didn't fit before when we dismantled goals for football. The county supported us and purchased the correct goals, which are easily movable when we transition between football and soccer. • Our landscaping contractor, ABM, which has proven to be incredibly reliable. As we bring sand volleyball courts online in the next six weeks, that increases the scope of their work, so we've 7 October 24, 2022 been working with them to make sure that as the facility grows, their contract's scope grows and we're able to remain within our budget for landscaping. • We decided not to use an outside vendor for custodial work and are hiring independent custodians in-house who work for Sports Facilities Companies. That provides additional savings. • Thinking that fields would be in place, we booked them, but the hurricane created supply -chain issues and we may not get the fields as soon as we'd hoped. • We're also going to have to tell some vendors we have to scale back because of that. • We'll do our best to make sure we can accommodate as much as we possibly can. Ms. Kerns asked if they could use some fields in the City of Naples. Mr. Moses said Steve has offered to find them other fields, but their games require multiple fields, not single, and they don't want to take fields away from other teams. They're working with Collier County Parks & Recreation to find fields. Ms. Cox said their focus on ancillary revenues and sponsorships is very organized. It's smart that they're maximizing sponsorships by following field capacities. Now that everything is so heavily booked, you're smart to be turning attention to maximizing the share of wallet from people who were there and then maximizing sponsorship investments. It's a great, logical progression Mr. Moses thanked her, saying there are only so many fields we have, and there's only so much of a value for that, so there's a ceiling. We have to make sure we're being creative in the way we're driving revenue and using the facility. We're looking forward to sharing the plans we have for the facility with you and using it in ways that people haven't thought of. Ms. Becker thanked him for the report, noting that a report like that isn't easy to create. You put in a lot of hours and it's the first we've had like this. Mr. Moses said he enjoyed doing it and received a lot of support from the team. Chairman Solis commended him on the huge financial turnaround. It's impressive. Mr. Beirnes thanked Adrian for mentioning that Marissa is in Oklahoma, representing the PCSC. The collaboration over the last year continues to improve daily. The line of communications between the CVB and the PCSC is phenomenal. Pressed with all the challenges before us, Marissa stepped up and asked to represent the CVB and sports complex. That shows they're not only promoting the sports complex, but other sports opportunities we haven't thought of to encourage rights holders to come to Collier County. It's exciting going forward. This is an opportunity to introduce Steve Quinn because we're about a month away from FBU. We want to give Steve an opportunity to showcase it for those who may not know what FBU involves. [Mr. Quinn detailed a PowerPoint presentation, Partnership Snapshot & Benefits] 6. Consent Agenda All matters listed under this agenda item are routine and action will be taken by one motion without separate discussion on each item. If discussion is desired by a member of the TDC, those items will be moved from the Consent Agenda and considered separately under New Business or Old Business. A. Coastal Zone Management None H October 24, 2022 B. Beach Park Facilities None C. Tourism Division None 7. New Business A. Recommendation to approve the use of Tourist Development Tax Promotion Funds to support the Everglades City Triathlon and the Hookem in the Glades Fishing Tournament for a total of $2,000 and make a finding that this expenditure promotes tourism. Mr. Beirnes said this initially came in as part of an Arts and Culture Grant, but it best fit the sports budget. It's a small sports event sponsorship. This is a recommendation to approve the use of Tourist Development Tax Promotion Funds to support the Everglade City Triathlon and a second event, the Hook'em in the Glades Fishing Tournament, for a total of $2,000, and make the finding that this expenditure promotes tourism. This is a great opportunity to help that region through ancillary events. The Everglades City Triathlon Fun Run will attract 250 entrants and is projected at about 125 rooms for a one-night stay. We are looking to support this with a $1,000 sponsorship that will impact the Everglades region. The Hook'em Glades Fishing Tournament, produced by the Lions Foundation of the Everglades, has a total of 180 entrants and projects about 40 overnight visitors, with 20 hotel -room nights. It's small in scope, but is an opportunity to ramp up efforts in Everglades City, which doesn't have the opportunity to execute many events. Each event is $1,000, for a total of $2,000. Vice Chairman Hill moved to recommend approving the use of Tourist Development Tax Promotion Funds to support the Everglades City Triathlon and the Hook'em in the Glades Fishing Tournament for a total of $2,000, and found that this expenditure promotes tourism. Second by Ms Cox. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0. Ms. Brock noted that the Community Foundation of Collier County is one of the triathlon supporters and the fishing tournament supports Everglades City Schools, which is typically underfunded, especially at the high-school level because it's based on headcount in the graduating class, which is between eight and 15 students. To field teams, they often have to use the middle - school students, so funding is always an issue for the athletic department. That event has solved their problem and it's a big event for us. 8. Old Business None 9. Marketing Partner Reports These reports (Marketing Partner Reports - Downs & St. Germain Research Group; Paradise Advertising & Marketing, Inc.; Lou Hammond & Associates; Convention & Visitors Bureau PR Team; Collier County Tax Collector - tourist tax collections; Miles Partners - Website Analytics, Digital & Social Media; Book Direct, JackRabbit Systems - online hotel booking systems; County Museums) are provided to TDC members on a digital link to the County website. The Research 9 October 24, 2022 Data Services report will be presented monthly, and the other reports will be presented at TDC meetings on an -as -needed basis. TDC members may request a presentation by the marketing partner representative or by tourism staff at each TDC meeting. Mr. Beirnes said they won't be going through the marketing partner report in detail and will be focusing on roughly two areas. Our Tourist Development Tax collection for the fiscal year came in at a little over $47 million in collections, a historic high. Our budget target was $29 million when we started the year and we finished at $47.5 million, which is miraculous. He worked tirelessly with Chris Johnson. We've been squirreling away funds for reserves and that couldn't have been more apropos. We've had excessive collections, or extra collections, and we have aggressively tucked away savings in the event that something would come up, so the money is there. We are prepped very well with funding and some earmarked dollars, but have been cautiously aligned. We're very blessed after 2022. There's nearly nothing he does without reaching out to Joseph Saint Germain. We are really ingrained with research and it's smart marketing to ensure we're on the right path. He can give insight because he represents research and many destinations around Florida that went through hurricanes. One of the first things he asked Joseph to do is to look at what the economic impacts were for the other destinations and how they fared. The impact was on labor force, but we're going to rebound well. Part 1. Marketing Partner Report A. Downs & St. Germain Research Group —Joseph St. Germain [Mr. St. Germain detailed a PowerPoint presentation, CVB September 2022 Monthly Dashboard.] B. Paradise Advertising [Presented earlier in the meeting.] C. Lou Hammond Group — Terry Gallagher [No presentation] Part 2. Marketing Partner Reports D. Collier County Tourist Tax Collections — Paul Beirnes [Addressed briefly earlier in the meeting] E. Miles Media — Enriqueta Balandra [No presentation] F. Paradise Coast Sports Complex/Sports Facilities Companies — David Wasson, Adrian Moses [Addressed earlier in the meeting] G. County Museums —Amanda Townsend [Ms. Townsend detailed a PowerPoint presentation, "Collier County Museums — September Visitors Report' J Ms. Townsend also detailed how he county museums fared in the hurricane: 10 October 24, 2022 • The Naples Depot museum took in about 2% feet of water in the front five rooms. It's a bilevel building so the back portion was spared. There was significant flooding in the front of the building. We were able to evacuate all artifacts and didn't lose any. We did lose casework and interior building components. • She commended Collier County Facilities Management for getting there so quickly to help remove inundated building materials. We're now waiting until the moisture levels are low enough that we can put up drywall, which is stacked up and ready to go. • This wasn't the Naples Depot's first hurricane. It was built in 1928, so it's seen many and will come back better than ever. We don't have a reopening date because there's a lot to be done. • The Museum of the Everglades did not flood but in the weeks post -storm, we discovered that even though the water didn't come in the building, the understructure electrical was inundated, so we're assessing that and investigating what needs to be replaced. • Electrical contractors have been out already, so the Museum of the Everglades is currently closed. It's a bit of a blessing because we used the opportunity to have Facilities' maintenance crew in for some much -needed work — scraping and painting and other things — taken care of that have long needed to be addressed. We're hoping for an early November reopening. That's achievable, depending on the availability of electrical conduit contractors and materials. • All other museums did fairly well. There was some horticultural debris everywhere and bumps and bruises on some smaller buildings, but nothing that will keep us from serving the public. [Ms. Townsend then outlined upcoming events, which are on the website.] 10. Council Member Discussion Ms. Becker reiterated the important of language to counteract people from afar who have been watching TV, think it's a mess here and plan a trip elsewhere. As you said, tonality and language are more important than ever. We're representatives so we need to delicately say we're working hard and we're almost there. Ms. Brock said they should inspire local businesses to speak out. Mr. Beirnes said he had such pride in the days after the hurricane. Tony's on Third staff showed up, as well as passionate customers, to do what was needed and roll out the carpet. Tables and chairs were stacked to dry out. That's the resiliency and strength that exists in Southwest Florida. Customers said, "That's my favorite restaurant and I'm going to help Tony Ridgeway recoup." That happened in so many destinations. He's seen that passion posted for the Turtle Club and many other restaurants. That's the resilience and the tonality. That's the message of "We're coming back." That's part of what Katherine was talking about, our stories. We're going to out and look for those stories. There's something about a destination that is strong and resilient and bounces back that makes you an underdog and supporter of those who want to come in. So we're going to be very cautious about our tone. We already have resiliency and action on our home page. We're telling that story without being forceful or boasting. Ms. Becker noted that Third Street was hit particularly hard and there's a hold on all activity, including the farmers market and Christmas celebration. Vice Chairman Hill said that's why he brought up funding. If there's any way we could help, we're in a fortunate position to do that. 11 October 24, 2022 Chairman Solis commended CVB employees' commitment to pitch in when their own families and homes were being threatened. He said the TDC is vitally important and he joined in 2018. Since then, the area had Hurricane Irma and we're wrapping up those FEMA-related audits. Then there was red tide, the pandemic and now, Hurricane Ian. We've only had about six months without a disaster. Throughout, the TDC was vitally important and conveyed the right message to keep Collier County at the forefront of tourism, which is vital to our economy. He thanked everyone for serving on the TDC and said he loved being on the TDC. Mr. Beirnes noted that Chairman Solis has been a steadfast leader. This is technically his last meeting. He's done a great job being our chairman and will be greatly missed. [Applause] Vice Chairman Hill thanked him for his professionalism, support of employees and being a great leader. Ms. Becker noted that it was Commissioner Solis who asked to be the chairman. Chairman Solis said it was an honor to serve. This is a very important advisory board. This and the Planning Commission are the two most important advisory boards the BCC has. Without our leadership and vision, we could certainly be in the wrong place. 11. Tourism Staff Reports - Director (Submitted) 12. Detailed Staff Reports (Submitted) 13. Next Scheduled Meeting Date/Location — 9 a.m. November 28, 2022 Collier County Government Center, Administration Building F, 3rd Floor, 3299 East Tamiami Trail, Naples, Florida 34112 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chairman at 11:07 p.m. COLLIER COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL Andy Solis, Chairman These minutes were approved by the Council on (choose one) as presented, or as amended 12