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TDC Minutes 07/25/2022 Draft July 25, 2022 1 MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL MEETING Naples, Florida, July 25, 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 (excused) Amanda Cox Susan Becker Kathleen Brock (via Zoom) Ed “Ski” Olesky Jared Grifoni Nancy Kerns Beth Petrunoff (excused) ALSO PRESENT: Paul Beirnes, Collier County Tourism Director Colleen Greene, Assistant County Attorney Buzzy Ford, Digital & Social Media Coordinator, County Tourism Marissa Baker, Manager, Paradise Coast Sports Complex Amanda Townsend, County Museums Director John Melleky, County Arts & Culture Manager (via Zoom) July 25, 2022 2 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. 1. 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 eight was established by those members present in the board room; a ninth arrived later. Ms. Kerns made a motion to allow Ms. Brock to participate via phone due to an extraordinary circumstance. Second by Ms. Becker. The motion passed unanimously, 6-0; Ms. Brock abstained. 4. Agenda and Minutes A. Changes and Approval of Today’s Agenda No changes B. Approval of prior TDC Meeting Minutes Regular Meeting June 27, 2022 Ms. Becker made a motion to approve the June 27, 2022, meeting minutes. Second by Councilor Grifoni. The motion was carried unanimously, 7-0. 5. Presentations/Public Comment - (3 minutes each) None 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 B. Beach Park Facilities None C. Tourism Division None 7. New Business 7.1 Recommendation to approve the use of the Tourism Development Tax Promotion funds to support the upcoming Southeast USA Labor Day Cup Soccer Tournament (September 3-5, 2022), up to a maximum of $12,000, and make a finding that these expenditures promote tourism. July 25, 2022 3 Mr. Beirnes said the items under New Business involve amateur soccer events. We have worked very closely with the Paradise Coast Sports Complex and are thrilled to see some momentum. The first soccer event takes place in September, the Southeast USA Labor Day Cup Soccer Tournament. It’s a recommendation to approve the use of the Tourist Development Tax Promotional Funds to support the upcoming Southeast USA Labor Day Cup Soccer Tournament, which will take place from Sept. 3 through Sept. 5, 2022, up to a maximum of $12,000, and to make a finding that these expenditures promote tourism. For all three of these, they are events that had previously taken place in 2018-2019. They haven’t been here since then. We took a conservative approach based on their previous numbers and looked at the economic impact for all three. We worked with Adrian and Marissa to review the field registration fees. We built a model similar to what we’ve done in the past, which was $15 per room night that is booked and executed. It must be demonstrated that it actually happened, not through a third party, but actually a room block. We capped that fund at what the fee is for the field rentals, so the direct impact on the first event is $1.5 million. The second impact, which is the expanded economic impact, is $2.1 million. These numbers are a little larger than what we have normally seen because the average daily rate has continued to rise. We based numbers on last year’s updates, so this particular time of year was still somewhere in the range of $250 for the average daily rate over the late weekend room nights. Projected were 1,200 and we peeled it back to our approval of only 800 nights and that caps it at what the maximum rental fees are for the field, 15 times 800 room nights. It must be demonstrated at the back end and it will be funded post event. Ms. Cox said since the first event is over the holiday weekend and we are starting to see demand normalize a bit more to a historic 2019, do we anticipate having any challenges gaining the amount of room blocks from a participatory perspective based on the holiday weekend? Mr. Beirnes said it’s hard to know. We will see a pretty solid summer, but it’s still really questionable what happens once kids go back to school. We see some real strong optimism on the international market, which will carry us well in the fall, but it’s a real big question mark and certainly a challenge to event organizers. But based on the information that we have with gas prices, we would be remiss if we did not try to frame things up as best as we could. It’s certainly going to be a challenge. Let’s hope that will be a great case scenario. Ms. Cox said we didn’t struggle for room nights in 2018 or 2019? Mr. Beirnes said no. Councilor Grifoni asked if this was held last year. Ms. Baker said he did host his event at Paradise Coast Sports Complex for the first time post- pandemic last year, but did not request grant funding. It probably had just been paused because of everything that was going on, so he is returning for grant funding. They did host it last year. Chairman Solis asked if there was any information on how many participants there were last year. Ms. Baker said she couldn’t remember the exact number, but he usually gets anywhere between 100 and 200 and he always produces. She can find the exact number for the TDC. July 25, 2022 4 Chairman Solis noted that last year also would have been a reduced amount and must be proven to be reimbursed the full $12,000. If there’s only $7,100 then it’s a lower reimbursement. Mr. Beirnes said that was correct. Councilor Grifoni made a motion to recommend approving the use of Tourism Development Tax Promotion funds to support the Southeast USA Labor Day Cup Soccer Tournament, up to a maximum of $12,000, and found that the expenditure promotes tourism. Second by Ms. Kerns. The motion was carried unanimously, 7-0. 7.2. Recommendation to approve the use of the Tourism Development Tax Promotion funds to support the upcoming Unified Cup Soccer Tournament (October 1-2 & 8-9, 2022), up to a maximum of $18,000, and make a finding that these expenditures promote tourism. Mr. Beirnes said this event will occur over two weekends, October 1-2 and the following weekend, October 8-9. The recommendation is to approve the use of Tourism Development Tax Promotional Funds to support the upcoming Unified Cup Soccer Tournament on October 1-2 and October 8-9, for a maximum of $18,000 and to make a finding that these expenditures promote tourism. Based on the timing of the total economic impact, $3.5 million room nights they projected at 1600, we lowered that to 1,200 to align with the field rentals, which are $18,000 in field rentals. It’s the same organizer, same event and same strong history. Councilor Grifoni moved to recommend approving the use of Tourism Development Tax Promotion funds to support the Unified Cup Soccer Tournament, up to a maximum of $18,000, and found the expenditure promotes tourism. Second by Ms. Cox. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0. 7.3. Recommendation to approve the use of the Tourism Development Tax Promotion funds to support the upcoming Doral Gold Cup Soccer Tournament (November 5-6, 2022), up to a maximum of $12,000, and make a finding that these expenditures promote tourism. Mr. Beirnes said the third event’s dates are November 5th and 6th. This is a significant-sized event. The recommendation is to approve the use of Tourist and Development Tax funds to support the upcoming Doral Gold Cup Soccer Tournament on November 5 and 6, 2022, up to a maximum of $12,000 and to make a finding that these expenditures promote tourism. The total economic impact is $3.5 million and total room nights are projected at 1,200, which we lowered to 800 to match the field rentals of $12,000. Ms. Becker made a motion to recommend approval of the use of the Tourism Development Tax Promotion funds to support the upcoming Doral Gold Cup Soccer Tournament (November 5-6, 2022), up to a maximum of $12,000, and found that the sponsorship expenditures promote tourism. Second by Ms. Kerns. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0. 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, July 25, 2022 5 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 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 it certainly has been an interesting couple of months. We are two days away from having our marketing summit. For the last 2½ months we have internally been developing our marketing plan and strategy, weighing things for the 2023 fiscal year. It was interesting to take a look historically at where we were last year. A year ago, we made a prediction about increased demand surge in ADR and we nailed it. But we weren’t sure what would happen in spring. A lot has certainly happened, from a surge in gas prices and interesting challenges in travel, interest rates, labor challenges and on., so we’ve got a lot of planning going on. We will sit down with all our partners on Wednesday. We have about 100 people who will be attending and it is a good dialogue back and forth. When you return in September, we’ll present our marketing plan and then take it to the Board of County Commissioners for approval. Over the last couple of months, there has been a normalcy of the average daily rate and we haven’t seen the bottom fall out of anything. Occupancy has remained in close step and ADR is very close to what it was last year. We were expecting to see a lot of red ink as we went into the summer and haven’t seen that. One of the most supportive elements is the Longwoods Sentiment Research, which came out last week. It said 70% of those surveyed nationwide about traveling expressed a significant concern about gas prices. Asked what they would do, they said they were going to travel a little closer to home. We have already adapted that pivot within our marketing plan to target the drive-market for Florida residents. A very small amount of people surveyed said they were canceling their trips. What we did see in this survey was that there was an expressed intent to spend less on entertainment, dining and food, but they did not say they were eliminating them. They were just going to pull back. That bodes very well for us in the travel and tourism industry. We are looking for when people say, “No, it’s beyond my capacity to travel.” People use summer to connect with families and that resonates strong enough to carry us through. If Longwood Sentiment Research proves it, it really does indicate that people are still coming out of the pandemic and are feeling the importance of travel, so we are continuing to monitor everything. If you received the Sunday paper, Parade magazine made a reference to the popularity of pickleball everywhere and one line, which refers to Ellen DeGeneres, says, “I’m absolutely obsessed with it.” The article also noted that Naples calls itself the Pickleball Capital of the World, so we had a little bit of a cameo nationwide, which is an encouraging sign. Part 1. Marketing Partner Report A. Downs & St. Germain Research Group – Joseph St. Germain “Collier County Tourism Research – June 2022 Visitor Tracking and Economic Impact Study” [Mr. St. Germain detailed a PowerPoint presentation.] Ms. Becker said she had an observation. Looking at the percentages of travelers in the various airports, all the airports at the top service multiple airlines, except for the Punta Gorda Airport, July 25, 2022 6 which just services one. Yet it’s the same percentage as Fort Lauderdale. And just below Miami, this is an angle we haven’t looked at before. It does have something to do with choices of direct flights. Ms. Cox thanked Mr. St. Germain for adding 2019 to add comparison, which tells a story and hopefully, we gained some new tourists over the last couple of years, even as new options became available. What are your thoughts on some of that slow down? We’re starting to see a normalization of demand that is going to eventually affect ADR. Could you add a 2019 reference point on our monthly occupancy, ADR and RevPAR breakdown? There could be a tendency for us to see a downward trend and think the sky is falling, but it’s not. It’s normalizing. So that might be useful historically. Mr. Beirnes said a lot of you received our Star Report. During the pandemic, they were comparing it to multiple years, not just 2020. He’s about to reach out to Smith Travel and will ask to add 2019. We set all-time records in 2022 and we didn’t want to be just comparing it to 2019. We wanted to frame it up. But you’re right. He’s about to reach out to Smith Travel to have them add 2019 and even 2018 so we can see some historical growth and not just be fearful. It has been an interesting path. 2019 was record a year, and 2020. We did all right in 2021 and we set an all-time record in 2022. It’s hard to compare where we are. Ms. Cox said that was her thought and as someone involved in driving top-line revenues, it’s good to remember 2019 was a historic high and a super profitable year for this destination, so it’s really good to compare that. B. Paradise Advertising – Joseph Taylor Mr. Beirnes said that as we go to Paradise Advertising, he wants to frame up two things. One is international travel. As Joseph just mentioned, coming out of IPW, there was certainly still a pent-up demand that came out of our conversation with IPW, but there was a bit of an epiphany that happened and that was kind of ignored by a lot of us, which was that borders opened up on November 8, 2021. By that time, domestic travel had already been taking off, so by the time the borders opened up for international, there already was an escalated ADR. The occupancy had really been snapped up and the more conversations he had with the County’s international reps and tour operators, he was reminded that a lot of international travelers either couldn’t get the occupancy when they wanted or they weren’t willing to because the prices had gone so high – and yet that savings remained. The pent-up demand is even stronger, and now they are snapping at flights and availability earlier than ever. He’s hopeful that we can take advantage of that pent-up demand that remains to maybe compound or expand beyond the normal visitation windows. And as, Ms. Cox says, we’re always setting new thresholds. The reality is that if we’re only focusing on those peak periods, there’s very limited occupancy. We’ve really tapped that out repeatedly as we go into 2023. Planning is one of the things that we’re really focusing on and how we can really drive the shoulder season. It has always been something we’ve talked about, but it needs to be really a compressed focus. We have an unlimited potential because we have such a delta between that and what happens in January and February. Some great momentum has continued over the last couple of months. You have helped us administer a lot of our Arts and Culture Grants and the amount of activity and focus has been remarkable. The July 25, 2022 7 way the arts and culture community has rallied together has been second to none. It is so exciting and we rolled out the official name last week to the committee and everybody jumped at it. It’s ¡Arté Viva!, which is a celebration of Hispanic arts and culture across Collier County. Paradise Advertising is now developing the logo for that. They’ve developed 10 that we have to choose from. The event kicks off in October. [Mr. Taylor detailed a PowerPoint presentation, “Advertising Report – June 2022”] Ms. Brock said under the paid Google search, why would you eliminate the Panhandle on Google Ads? Mr. Taylor said the marketing team looked at the statistics and, historically, those haven’t been the highest-converting ads. They weren’t the best performing. There are also national campaigns that would capture some of those other geographic regions, but for Florida specifically, those efforts didn’t include the Panhandle this time around, just based on previous performance. Mr. Beirnes said what excited us about the iHeart promo is the ability to build our Florida database with another 6,000 names. C. Lou Hammond Group – Terry Gallagher “National Public Relations Update – TDC Meeting – Services Conducted in June 2022” [Mr. Gallagher detailed a PowerPoint presentation] Mr. Beirnes said that Terry will be coming here to be part of our marketing summit on Wednesday. Part 2. Marketing Partner Reports D. Collier County Tourist Tax Collections – Paul Beirnes [Mr. Beirnes detailed a PowerPoint presentation, “Tourist Tax Collections – June 30, 2022”] Chairman Solis said that almost sounds too good to be true with that data. Mr. Beirnes said it went through the roof. It exploded. Chairman Solis said, So last month, it was 50%? Mr. Beirnes said it was. Even if you add year-to-date, we’re slightly ahead of last year. Chairman Solis said, So it will still be ahead. Mr. Beirnes said it’s always good to be cautious. E. Miles Media – Enriqueta Balandra Paradise.com Web Analytics Report – June 2022 - PowerPoint presentation [Ms. Balandra detailed a PowerPoint presentation.] Mr. Beirnes said that Enriqueta has focused on a lot of data in four minutes. During the week, we spent of a lot of hours on those slides. Content is king. We need to be out there with lots of content, depth of content and be much more strategic to compel visitors. We deep dove to demonstrate that that is, indeed, happening. We have challenged ourselves to pull it up even stronger and have enhanced our creative content. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes action that goes into this. We definitely need to look at ADR and compression. July 25, 2022 8 F. Paradise Coast Sports Complex/Sports Facilities Companies – David Wasson, Sports Facilities Manager Mr. Wasson said they’ve seen 110,000 people pass through the gates from January through June of this year, a 110% increase over the same period last year. We’re excited about what we’ve seen so far in 2022. [Mr. Wasson detailed a PowerPoint presentation.] Ms. Becker told him to keep up the good work. Chairman Solis asked if the weather cooperated with the FBU opening ceremonies. Mr. Wasson said it did, but they had to push it back 90 minutes and they had about 6,000 people in the stadium between the participants and their families lined up in the stadium and the berms. Those first two days of Top Gun were rainy days, lightning-filled days, but the final days were lighting free and rain free. So hopefully, we can have that all the time. G. County Museums – Amanda Townsend, Director, Collier County Museums Ms. Townsend said she wanted to do something different this month. She usually gives a presentation on visitation, where people are from and what temporary exhibits are going on, which is very operational in nature. But some TDC members might not know about the museums, our vision, strategy and projects we’re working on, so she won’t provide visitor stats this month and will come back in September with a couple of months’ worth. This month, she wanted to provide an overview of the museum division and detail the projects going on and the great partnerships in the community, and how we’re very successful with grant funding. She wasn’t sure the TDC was aware of all that. [Ms. Townsend detailed a PowerPoint presentation] Chairman Solis said he thought he heard her mention a cemetery. Ms. Townsend said the Museums Division oversees Rosemary Cemetery, which is by the CVS on the south side of Pine Ridge by U.S. 41. Chairman Solis said he drives by there every day. Mr. Beirnes said he always learns something new when he’s around Amanda. 10. Council Member Discussion Chairman Solis said he’s trying to be constructive and asked what they were trying to convey with ¡Arté Viva!, the name of the Hispanic arts festival. Because the translation depends on what you want to say. Arts Live should be ¡Arté de Vivo! Mr. Beirnes said he was told it was arts coming alive through all our participants. The team relied on Spanish speakers to arrive at that name, arts coming alive through culture. Chairman Solis said he’s trying to make sure they aren’t incorrect. If you say ¡Viva Arté!, it’s hurray for the arts, or something like that. If you want to say “arts live,” it would be ¡Arté de Vivo!, with an “O” at the end. Mr. Beirnes thanked him and said he’d address that within 24 hours. Mr. Melleky said when they were looking at a name for the Hispanic Arts & Culture program, there were a couple of things they looked into and considered about 60 names. They wanted something that could easily be said and easily understandable, and it kind of represents something that is celebratory, and also it could be something that might not always be grammatically correct, but July 25, 2022 9 could be some type of Spanglish. For instance, in Miami there’s a festival called Hispanicize, which is not a word, but that is a way to celebrate the Hispanic culture. So, we thought ¡Arté Viva! allows us to really kind of celebrate live arts but also be celebratory because of that “viva.” Chairman Solis said perfect. As someone who grew up speaking Spanglish his whole life, he gets it. He just wanted to make sure that was the thought process. The other question he had involves numbers. In the conveying industry, we look at business cycle trend lines, a 312 and a 212 shows where things are in the business cycle, so that manufacturers can make informed decisions about inventory. Is that something we should be looking at in terms of the data we’re being presented or is that something you’re looking at internally? Mr. Beirnes said they definitely will. In our next planning meeting, we’re going to look at all the curves, the vacation planning cycle, some of the influences and pressure on meetings, But we wanted to provide an additional number of “gut checks” because nothing is normal anymore and we have to compare it against a lot of different factors. Chairman Solis said that month-to-month is one thing, but if you’re looking at a five-year term and a running average and coming up with categories that will be meaningful, such as occupancy, ADR, so that you could tell if you’re on an upswing, reaching the top or are we on a downswing? Mr. Beirnes said that was a great suggestion. Chairman Solis said Ms. Cox mentioned looking at it with a longer lens. Ms. Cox agreed and said she thought she understood seasonal tourist markets, but Collier County is seasonal on steroids, but in the last two years, it has really smoothed out. She was glad to hear Paul say we’re going to start digging into the shoulder-season and longer periods, the long lines and the past five Junes, which tells a longer, different story. 11. Tourism Staff Reports - Director [Submitted] Mr. Beirnes said the TDC will take a break in August and will return on September 26. He will be sending a report in the middle of August and they can feel free to look at it. 12. Detailed Staff Reports [Submitted] 13. Next Scheduled Meeting Date/Location – 9 a.m. September 26, 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 Chair at 10:38 p.m. COLLIER COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL _________________________________ Chairman: Commissioner Andy Chairman Solis These minutes were approved by the Council on _________________, as presented, _______ or as amended ___________.