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TDC Minutes 02/27/2023February 27,2023 MINL]TES OF THE COLLIER COUN'|Y -I'OURIST DEVELOPMENT COTJNCIL MEETING Naples, Florida, February 27,2023 Chairman: Commissioner Bill McDaniel Jr. Vice Chairman: Clark Hill Susan Becker Kathleen Brock Amanda Cox Councilor Jared Grifoni Nancy Kerns Ed "Ski" Olesky Councilwoman Beth Petrunoff (excused) ALSO PRESENT: Paul Beimes, Collier County Tourism Director Colleen Greene, Assistant County Attomey Buzzy Ford, Tourism Digital & Social Media Coordinator Chris Johnson, Interim Dir., Corp. Financial Mgt. Services, OMB Andy Miller, Coastal Zone Manager Marissa Baker, Manager, Paradise Coast Sports Complex Amanda Townsend, County Museums Director 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 AM in a REGULAR SESSION in Building F of the Government Complex, Naples, Florida, with the following members present: I February 27 ,2023 An1, persons in need of the vefiatim record of the nrceting mo! requesl t copy of the video recording from the Collier Countl' Conmunicalions ond Customer Relalions Deparlmenl or view it online. l. Call to Order Chairman McDaniel called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance The Pledge of Allegiance r,r'as recited A quorum ofseven was established by members present in the board room; an eighth member arrived later. 4. Agenda and Minutes A, Changes and Approval ofToday's Agenda Mr, Beirnes reported changes lo the agenda: . We regularly discuss the Tourist Development Tax collection and distribution, but he invited Chris Johnson from finance to walk us through it. We will move that item to 5A and start with that presentation so Chris can get back to work. o We had some technical difficulties creating the agenda and were trying to move item l0 below or between l0 and I I , Council Member Discussions, but we will do that for the next meeting. o A key item is No. I 3 a brief discussion about possibly rescheduling this meeting. o [Mentioned later] There are two Consent Agenda items that should be under New Business. We will move them to items 6.A. I and 6.A.2. Vice Chairman Hill noted that Paul Beimes just retumed from Los Angeles, where he received a prestigious award from HSMAI, Hospitality Sales Marketing Association Intemational. The award was for the Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds and recognizes leaders in sales, marketing. revenue optimization, & distribution within the Travel & Hospitality industry for their accomplishments in the preceding l8 months. He was selected by a panel of senior industry executives. The top 25 awardees are high achievers who stand out through their creativity and innovation, cutting-edge campaigns and programs, triumph in challenging situations and efforts that resulted in dramatic gains. Congratulations, Paul. We're proud ofyou. Mr. Beirnes said it was very humbling and wouldn't be possible without the work of the TDC and CVB. B. Approval of prior TDC Meeting Minutes Regular Meeting January 23,2023 Ms. Bec*er mode o n otion lo approve lhe January 23, 2023, meeting minules. Second b1t Mr. Olesky, Tlte motion possed unanimously, 7-0, 5. Presentations/Public Comment - (3 minutes each) A. I [Chris Johnson detailed a PowerPoint presentation, TDT Revenue and associated revenue reporl and hktory ofthe funds.l Ms. Cox asked if this takes into account the delta in collections. We exceeded by $2.6 million, so we surmised that thal trend would conlinue? 2 3. Roll Call Mr. Beirnes said Councilwoman Petrunoff had an excused absence. Chairman McDaniel asked where the other 29%o ofthe first three pennies go. Mr. Johnson said that will be coming up in the presentation. February 27 ,2023 Mr, Johnson said yes, this is a very conservative method. We're counting the money in the bank and we're going with our budget moving forward. [Ms. Brockjoined the ,neeting ol 9:16 a.m.] Chairman McDaniel said he would like to see an analysis about the trend on a per-penny basis ofwhat we're collecting. Each one ofthose pennies generates X in revenue. He wants a comparison of what we have been doing in the past with the anomalies that we see coming fiom circumstantial events, such as hurricanes and the pandemic. Those have direct impacts on our revenue collections. He also wants to see how much ofthose revenues are fenced offdue to statutory requirements about where we have to apply the monies as an advisory corlmiltee, such as for beach renourishment, promotions and museums. You've got allocations about where they're set up. He wants to know how much discretion in the aggregate money collected is afforded there. Some of it is statutorily required and we can't use that. What he wants to see is how much room we have between fenced-offmoney in relationship to theoretically discretionary money. Mr. Johnson said we can do that. He'll work with the County Attomey's Office and Assistant County Attomey Colleen Greene. Chairman McDaniel said he'd like to hear that at next month's meeting and have some discussions about how we're appropriating the monies and where we're at with aggregate reserves, which is good to do flom a conservative budgeting standpoint. How much are we putting into reserves? How much ofthat money is fenced off and designated? Tomorrow, the BCC has a $27 million expenditure coming up for beach renourishment for the berm/beach restoration due to Hunicane lan, so he'd like to see that. Mr. Johnson said they can do that. Chairman McDaniel said Ms. Cox's question about trends was a good one because it will allow the TDC to see what we have. Mr. Beirnes reporled lhal: . There are a lot ofmetrics we're tracking, such as the weekly Smith Travel report. o We look three months back and at what happened last week. o Downs & St. Germain will talk about our research on sentiment perceptions. Visitors haven't arrived yet, but we're trying to understand what their psyche is. . He and Chris talked last week about needing to look at Hurricane lan's impacts and the two properties that still haven't opened and are working toward that. We had been optimistic that maybe there would be a quick rebound. Our question was. What does that mean for our TDT collections this year? The two properties are significant, about 650 rooms, a higher collection than most. o lfwe are not looking forward, we'll find ourselves in a predicament, shock and awe. But when we ran the numbers, both of our calculations about projections were almost the same. . He asked Marissa to introduce FBU, Football University, which we invest in, and how it impacts Paradise Coast Sports Complex, and to ask Steve Quinn to provide a briefrecap ofthe last event. Ms. Baker said Steve Quinn is the managing partner ofFBU and will give a presentation about the national championship, which we hosted in December. Collier County has a sponsorship agreement with Football University to bring two major events here annually through 2025. Mr. Quinn said the Football University National Championship is one of two events we bring to Collier County every year. He'll speak about the December event and briefly touch on the July event, Top Gun, which is outlined in the one-page brochure Marissajust handed out. FBU is like AAU basketball meets the Little League World Series of Baseball. That's what we do for football on the youth and middle-school levet, bringing the top teams from all over the country in an all-star format in one month in 48 cities nationwide. [He then detailed a PowerPoinl presentation.] 3 Ms. Brock asked what year that was started February 27,2023 Mr. Quinn said 2015. Ms. Becker commended him on his communication skills and enthusiasm. Parks & Recrcation Staff Presentations [James Hanrahan, interim Region 5 Parks Manager, provided a presentation on lhe U.S. Open PicHeball Championships and the preparation workJ [Aaron Hopkins, Region 2 Manager, provided a presentation on the 5dh Annual Naptes Boat Show] Ms. Kerns asked about the number of attendees. How can you have 89%o and 82%o? Is she misunderstanding that? Mr. Hopkins said he reported that wrong and apologized. The top one was exhibitor data. Those are the people at the exhibits. He can get more information on the 2004 sampling. These are the numbers provided by the Marine Industries Association of Collier County. He can get that information and follow up for the TDC. Chairman lVlcDaniel asked ifthey're redoing the lease so Collier gets a percentage. How many boats were sold? Mr. Hopkins said the event was a rental. We wanted to see how il was going to work out, the logistics for this year. Moving forward, we want to enter into a formal BCC-signed agreement with the Marine Industries Association of Collier County that will account for monies coming in and out and will lock them in,just as we do with the U.S. Pickleball Open Championship and other county events. We're in the process ofdoing that and he will provide the TDC with that information once it's drafted. We're just waiting to bring it to the board. Chairman McDaniel said he heard one boat sold for more than $l million. Mr. Hopkins said one boat sold for over $4 million the first day and more boats were sold that week. Chairman McDaniel said that when you look at the numbers, it makes sense for us to continue this partnership. [David Michel, interim Region 4 Manager, detailed a PowerPoint presenlation aboul tournaments and showcases held in January.J Chairman McDaniel asked whether they sit down to ask what could be done better once it's over because it would be nice to be No. I in the Top l0 events. Mr. Michel said they conduct surveys before or after events and Adrian also conducts surveys for Paradise Coast Sports Complex. Chairman McDaniel said he'd like to see the surveys. That's one ofthe keys to success in building a bener program. What can we do better? Mr. Hopkins said they also do an after-action report for the Naples Boat Shou,and he can provide it to the TDC. 6. Consent Agenda All matters listed under this agenda item are routine and action will be taken by one molion without separate discussion on each item. Ifdiscussion is desired by a member of the TDC, those items will be movedfrom the Consent Agenda ancl considered separately under New Business or Old Business. A. Coastal Zone Management None B. Beach Park Facilities None 7. New Business A. Recommendation to approve an expenditure of$26,220 in Tourist Development Tax funds to Rick Croft Enterprises Inc., dba Texas Trailers, under Contract Number FSA20-EQUl8.0 - Heary 4 B. Tourism Division None Irebruary 27 , 2023 f,quipment (Piggyback Contract 251) for the purchase of two mobile cargo trailers for the storage of equipment and supplies used for beach maintenance activities and make a linding that this expenditure promotes tourism. Mt. Millet rcported lhal: o He gave kudos to staff for a greatjob pre-hurricane. They got expensive equipment, tractors, beach rakes and ATVs to higher ground. o But there are storage trailers/sheds at Tiger Tail Beach and Vanderbilt Beach that are attached to the ground. We keep equipment like generators, chainsaws, etc., there. Because they're bolted to the ground, wejust tightened them up and left them, not klowing we were going to have a surge. o The materials in the sheds were destroyed. . Staffcame up with a great idea to put the equipment in movable trailers instead. o He asked the TDC to approve the recommendation. Chairman McDaniel asked if they were tractor-trailers. Mr. Miller said they were not. They are pulled like a horse trailer Chairman McDaniel asked if they were big enough. Mr. Miller said they were. Vice Chairnnn Hill made o molion to recommend approving an expenditure of $26,220 in Tourist Developnrenl Tkr funds lo Rick Crofl Enterprises Inc., tlbl Texts Trailers, under Controcl Numbet FSA20-8QU18.0 - Heavy Equipment (Piggback Contmcl 251) for lhe purchase of twt mobile ctrgo lrailersfor the slorage of equipment ond supplies used for beach mainlenance oclivilies ondrt)und tlral the expenditure promoles tourisnt. Secorul hy Ms. Becker. The motion possed unanimously, 8-0. .4.2. Recommendation to approve a proposal for CSA Ocean Sciences Inc., to continue the required post-construction hardbottom monitoring for the Collier County Beach Nourishment Project in summer 2023 for time and materials not to exceed $378,594.35 Tourist Development Tax funds under Contract No. l7-7188 and make a finding that this item promotes tourism (Fund 195, Project No. 90033). 5 Mt. Miller rcporled that: o This is our annual hardbottom survey, as required by permit. . CSA Ocean Sciences is still under contract. We extended the five-year contract for one final year. . lfyou compare this to last year's effort, it's about $100,000 more. The main reason is the hurricane, which caused a surge that moved the sand around a lot. . The post-storm surveys we received from our consultants showed a lot ofsand moved offshore and into the hardbottom. . Our most recent side-scan survey was in 2009 over the hardbottom edge, so we wanted new data due to Hurricane Ian because ofthe sand moving around. . We built in funds for a new side-scan effort and we've included subaquatic v€getation surveys. in case we need to do work in inlets. o The good news is the ebb surge scoured out the channels, so they're in great shape. . Most likely we won't need to do subaquatic surveys in preparation for a dredge, so we should be in good shape. o He asked the TDC to approve the recommendation. Chairman McDaniel asked ifthis would be a precursor for us to be searching for other designated offshore sites for potential dredging for beach renourishment. Mr. Miller said y.-es.-We're going to be doing some of that efforl, not with this contract but with our consultant who is doing our post-storm surviy and engineering. He's put money in there to do some investigative work February 27 ,2023 offshore. We think our nearest source is about 30-40 miles offshore for the amount of sand we're talking about but there are gaps in the data that we want to fill in ifwe can, enormous gaps. Ms. Kerns made a motion lo recommend approving a proposal for CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. to conlinue lhe requircd posl-conslruclion hardbottom moniloring for the Collier County Beach Nourishmenl Projed in summer 2023 for time and materials nol to exceed $378,594.35 in Tourist Developmenl T{Ly funrls under Conlroct No. 17-7188 ond found lhat the aqenditurc promotes tourism Second by Ms, Brock. The motion passed antnimously, 8-0. B. Recommendation to approve the use ofthe Tourism l)evelopment Tax Promotion funds to support the upcoming March 2023 Sports Tourism Event, Trilogy Lacrosse, up to $12,000, and make a finding that these expenditures promote tourism. Chairman McDaniel said he really likes the directed investments the TDC is making recommendations on. As a commissioner, he's seeing more events benefiting from the utilization and advertisement ofthese use-taxes generated by users coming here. Paul regularly talks about the investment. This is a spot-on investment. He asked for a recommendation. 8. Old Business None Marketing Partner Reports These repirts (Marketing Partner Reporls - Downs & St. Germain Research: Paradise Advertising & Marketiig, Inc.; Lou Hammond Group; Convenlion & Visitors Bureau PR Team; Collier County Tax Collectoi- tourist tax collections; Miles Partnership - Website Analytics, Digital & Social Media; County Museums) are provided to TDC members on a digital link to the cottnty website. The Research Data 6 9 Chairman McDaniel noted that on Marco Island, Tigertail's restoration, just went through at $l I per ton, pumped to the beach and we're paying $60 a ton to truck it in from eastern Collier County. Hendry County, etc. He doesn't want to hear 30-40 miles offshore. He wants to locate sand sources close enough to be able to pump and take advantage ofthem. It's counterintuitive that we're being locked into an enormously expensive hopper- dredge process because someone designated a site 30-40 miles offshore when we know lhat the sand wenl south. Mr. Miller said if it's there, we'll find it. He asked for a recommendation. Mr. Beirnes delailed the recommendolion and repo ed lhal: o This is an interesting approach when we are looking at sporting events at Paradise Coast Sports Complex. We recognize we're in season and have elevated average daily rates. We have to evaluate the sporting events and who has the capabilities and facilities. o Adrian and his team had an amazing opportunity to attract and relocate a major event, a lacrosse event that has been in Arizona for five years, a multiple-week event from March l2-31. o There are 480 players, eight teams per week. It's like a lacrosse training camp. o So far, they've already secured l, I 55 room nights at the current elevated rate. o We have the opportunity to attract and nol only keep them this year, but to keep them in the market. o Based on the economic-impact calculator, from Destinations Intemational which is based on Oxford economics methodology, we were able to calculate that this year it would generate $4.8 million in total impact. o TDT collections alone are $97,000 based on what they're already demonstrating. . We're looking to give them an incentive based on the calculations and the $12,000 total amount. Councilor Grifoni mule o motion to reconmend opproving the use of Tourism Developmenl Ttx Pronntion funds lo supporl the March 2023 Sports Tourisn Event, Trilog;' Lacrosse, up lo $12,000, nndfound lhtrt the expendilure pronoles tourisnl Second by Mr. Olesky. The motion possed unanintousll,, 8-0. February 27 ,2023 Seryices reporl rrill be presented monthly, and the other reports will be presented at TDC meelings on on- as-needed basis. TDC members may requesl a presentalion by the markeling porfiel represenlalive or by tourism stafl at each TDC meeting. Part l. Marketing Partner Report A. Downs & St. Germain Research - -/osc7r h St. Gernain [Mr. St. Gernruin detailed a PowerPoinl presenlation.] Ms. Cox said that looking at January 2023 ADR versus 2022, how do we reconcile or normalize from a data perspective that hotels are still out oforder post-hurricane and that vacation rentals are the likely rate leaders in the market? ls that ADR decline real or is that just a supply differential? Mr. St. Germain said it's partially a supply differential. With hotels, il was down 3.3ok. The dip is rnore significant among vacation rentals. At the same time, if we're looking at RevPAR just for hotels, it was still up 4ok in January. The rate dip was real. Even if we're just looking at hotels, it's there. It'sjust not as significant. Vacation rentals are trickier to measure because they tend to come on and offline, particularly now because some may still be in recovery. That's something we need to monitor and measure. All of Southwest Florida saw a slight dip, but overall, for the last couple of months and the next couple of months moving forward, we'll highlight how hotels are doing because that data is more stable now. Ms. Cox thanked him for mentioning the Smith Travel data because that normalizes some ofthe closures. She appreciates seeing the ADR and RevPAR on a five-year trend. As we start to normalize post-COVID and other destinations open, it's important to monitor to understand visitation and project our collections. We could look at 2022 or 2021 and thinl the sky is falling, but it'sjust normalizing. This is not the only beach deslination. How much trouble would it be to show us visitor origin on the same five-year standard? The growth in intemational is amazing, but we expect that post-COVID. Knowing is that really growing relative to 2019 would be good. ls that something we could add in without a lot of trouble? Mr. St. Germain said they could, but Doll,ns & St. Germain has only been collecting Collier County data for two years. We can go back five years for paid accommodations and two years for all. Ms. Cox said that would be helpful. Chairman McDaniel said if this data was collected by someone else before, maybe we could assimilate it from the prior vendor. Mr. Beirnes said it was. Ms. Becker said she was surprised that only 2ok responded to the appealing ads after all the money we're putting into ads. Mr. Beirnes said that's not that unusual when it comes to recollection of where people saw an ad. We always make sure it's a collective piece ofthe puzzle. [t's social media and PR. No one is reflecting 98oZ "l saw that ad." But il happens and we have other data through ADARA that talks about our impact for the ads, whether or not people actually come into market. That would be a good item to discuss next month because we will have some of that data coming from our recent ad campaigns to show actual behavior, notjust research, but the actual behavior of visitors who came into our market. Ms, Becker noted only 4% said they were influenced by spofting events. We've just heard how great the sporting events are and how many people are brought in by them. This could question the survey method. Mr. Beirnes said that was correct. Vice Chairman Hill said it appears we're expecting the survey to include more short-term, vacation rentals and ovemight rentals. lf thar's the case. how are we nonnalizing the data? Mr. St. Germain repo ed thal: o Our monthly goal is to get a representative set ofvisitors. We're getting 200 surveys every month and are going to get some fluctuations due to monthly sample sizes. 7 February 27 ,2023 o The numbers for occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, number of visitors, direct spend, economic impact, are weighted based on the number of units. lfthere are more hotels, that's weighted more than vacation rentals. o We've been presenting all visitors and there aregoingto be different things overtime. The prior vendorjust provided a monthly snapshot. o The point is to try lo be representative, so we're normalizing the big numbers in terms of metrics, etc. . Visitor tracking data is monthly. . If you want to see other data moving forward, tell me. We're happy to adapt. We want to make sure the data is meeting the ever-changing needs ofPaul's team and the TDC. Vice Chairman Hill asked where he was getting the short-term rental data. Mr. Germain said the Star (STR) Report for hotels and the state DBPR for vacation rentals. Vice Chairman Hill noled that DBPR data only includes licensed rentals. It's still not clear how u'e would determine the occupancy percentage, the ADR for vacation rentals. Mr. St. Germain said they have tools, but that's the toughest to track. DBPR licenses are the best wa)'to estimate because it aligns with TDR collections. It's not a perfecl way to do it, but it's based on the available data. It's the best we have and focusing a bit more on hotel data in the short term w.ill be slightly more stable on a month-to- month basis. This is the best data available now. Vice Chairman Hill said he believes the numbers exceed hotel rooms by a large margin. He asked Mr. Beimes if he was receiving the data he needs. Mr. Beirnes said he appreciated the question and noted that he and Joseph knew this meeting would prompt many questions. We had a conversation over a year ago and rather than just answering questions that we were comfortable with and that made us look good, we wanted to challenge ourselves. Is there anything else that we need to be inspired by? For instance, when Downs & St. Germain took over this account, we never tracked day- trip visitors because the mindset was that we only care ifthey put heads in beds. They collect tourist and development tax, which is great and accurate. But the reality is, how do you know who's in market and not putting a head in bed? And where are lhey coming from, what are their inspirations and how do we make that day-tripper become an ovemight stay? At that time, we said we'd start tracking, so a year fiom now, in February of2023, we'll have a very difficult decision. We'll have some blind spots. But we will be better informed going forward, even understanding who's staying in a hotel, who's staying in vacation rentals, where are those people staying? There are additional research mechanisms available. It's a matter ofhow much down the rabbit trail we go. There are some resources that analyze the behavior within vacation rentals because with those that are licensed versus not licensed, it becomes an awkward and slippery slope, but we definitely have confidence in hotels. The day-trippers are really what's very important to figure out. How can we make them stay longer? Ifthey're coming from Tampa, depending on timing and the activity, how can we pivot that and put them into a hotel? We'll be modifying these reports in the weeks and months ahead as we start seeing some ofthese anomalies popping up. Ms, Brock asked how they arrived at which 200 people they're getting this information from. Where are they when you're asking them? And do we ever have data that tells us the party size? Does that influence whether somebody's staying in a vacation rental versus a hotel? That would be interesting to know because one would logically say the larger the party, they're more tikely to stay in a vacation rental. Mr. St. Germain said they get a representative sample across the county and question people at beaches, shopping areas, events and worked with John Melleky and the Arts & Culture team to make sure we covered some ofthose events. We appreciate the Sports Complex for allowing our interviews at their events. The goal is, ifthere's a big sporting event, we'll be there. It will fluctuate monthly, but quarterly, it's more stable. We're always looking to get more hotels just to make sure we're getting different types of visitors. For travel pa(y size, we have that. He'd have to run an analysis to see iftravel party sizes are bigger in vacation rentals and hotels. but he believes that would be the case. 8 February 27 ,2023 Chairman McDaniel asked ifthere is any correlation between sales tax data and taxes collected, other than the TDT tax, and the correlation between that and the estimates put in here. Are we tapped in that as a data source to be able to try to assimilate the normalization? Mr. Beirnes said they look at that monthly. There's a lag in reporting. There's a normalization but accuracy is what we're looking for. We have tapped into the sales tax data. Mr. St. Germain said that's something we look at monthly. When we're doing a monthly report like this. there's a lag in reporting. It would just depend on when that data is available for us to use. Chairman McDaniel asked if they were giving prizes during surveys. Mr. St. Germain said there were no incentives for answering surveys. Chairman McDaniel suggested a S25 gift certificate to get people to repty might be an incentive. We spend a lot ofmoney. so a $25 gift certificate to get someone to respond to a survey might get their attention. We're not buying answers. We're just incentivizing people, so maybe consider a prize to get them to participate, a free airboat ride or something. He wants this board to have a little more consideration over whether it's ourjob, from an investment standpoint, to convert day trippers to a longer-term stay. Why are people corning to Southwest Florida? Is itthis board'sjob or is it the government's job to be looking at that, as opposed to incentivizing the private sector, investing in the private sector that's actually generating the TDT revenue to do that, as opposed to us in aggregate trying to do that? If we're going to do that, ifthat's something industry standards have shown is good to do for the community, that's fine. But maybe there might be a different way to manage that. Mr. Beirnes said that in his 30 years in the tourism development industry, it is definitely within our wheelhouse. The core reason we are here as an organization is the marketing ofthe destination and ways ofputting heads in beds. That's the streeGlevel conversation ofwhat we're trying to do. By having somebody already in market, let's call it a "visitation on light," they have an affinity, desire and the capability ofconverting that person to extend their stay. Some ofthose we are analyzing are Florida residents coming in for one night. How do we convert that to two nights? Understanding where they're coming from is an efficient effort of understanding the behavior of visitors coming into the market. Ms. Brock suggested considering gathering data frorn visitor centers. In Everglades City, we collect tourism data but she didn't know ifthat's supplied to the Tourism Department. That could be a place where we could talk to people because they're there for information. You can ask them ifthey're here for the day or ifthey're staying. There could be an adjunct to communicating with people to convert them. Ms, Cox said that normally she enjoys gleaning and optimizing private sector investments as a great way to enhance groMh in this sector. But for the specifics we're talking about for day-trippers, ifyou look at the holels and motels generating the majority ofthis tax collection, we don't have an opportunity to speak to the day-trippers because lhey're not in our hotels. They're probably in our restaurants, attractions or visitor centers. She didn't see a great way to convert that for day-trippers. Another thing that has value is that as we look at everything we spend on advertising across our realms, it's really all about customer acquisition. The most affordable customer to acquire is one already in our ZIP code. Perhaps a lesser or more strategic investment is that maybe we should look at who is hopping in a car from St. Armand's Circle in Sarasota Io see our beaches and enjoy lunch in a local restaurant. That's probably a much better ADR conversion for this destination. Chairman McDaniel said the BCC will be discussing this more tomorrow. The BCC has a contract with the Marriott on its agenda. Mr. Beirnes said that's an RFP and we partner with all hotels in Collier County to bring some into market. We just provide an incentive that's capped at a $ 10,000 investment for the thousands of visitors they bring in to lock ihern in on the convention and meeting side. It's a much different scenario when it comes to leisure, which is what we're talking about here. Ms. Cox agreed we should do more of that, $10,000 to get $4 million' 9 February 27,2023 B. Paradise Advertising - Cind), Murietta, VP of Advertising IMs. Murielto delailed a PoverPoinl presentation] Ms. Cox asked if the data really shows the booking window or is it larger term? Ms. Murietta said it's the actualization each month. We're able to see the number of hotel rooms searched and booked by people exposed to our advertising. We look at our ADARA impact monthly. She didn't show you when they're coming, butjust over that period, we've already generated that much. Councilor Grifoni asked how much consideration is given to other areas to expand our footprint there? Ms. Murietta said they first have to see some indication that there's some interest. Councilor Grifoni said there has to be an indication that there's room to grow. It could take a few cycles. Throw a little money at some areas where we don't have success with visitors to see ifthere's an uptick and ifthere is, spend more money. Ms. Murietta said that's what they're doing in the Hartford-New Haven area. We'd never advertised there before. There are a few media tactics she will put into place. For example, ADARA is an AI. We give them the markets we want to be in because we knou'those are the markets that come here. Then we have a section ofthat that is an AI and that basically lifts all the parameters to see who's coming. Let's see who's searching from our advertising. Let's see who's booking. Let's advertise without those parameter limits and lel's see where there's traction. That was something we put into place this year. Itjust started in January, but we wanted to see what opportunity areas are there that we don't know about. What is the next Hartford-New Haven? Councilor Grifoni asked how we can identi! other areas to build a market and when word-of-mouth spreads, it's a new Hartford. They come here, they enjoy it and then all ofa sudden, you've got a new Hartford. Ms. Murietta said they're always looking for a new market. Mr. Beirnes said they're also looking at airlift. They'd seen Hartford and New Haven for a while. Ironically. Breeze Airways announced direct flights from Hartford. We not only had initiated that almost a year ago, we started conversations with RSW and others. We are looking for underperforming anomalies. Chairman McDaniel said you have new data and that's ADARA. What's the ROI? How much money are we spending in Hartford to generate 68 flights or 500 some odd flights in Chicago. He wants to see the spending in relation to that. Advertising has a cumulative effect, but when you're in somebody's face or in their world, a repeated ad is a benefit. He'd like to see the correlation to that new data from ADARA about actual website impressions. If they are watching and they know that somebody's gone fiom an impression to the website to a booking, we've got a name and phone number, so a direct connect with regard to those bookings in some form would be extremely beneficial because that would help correlate back to our adv€rtising and what we're doing. Mr. Beirnes said 60% ofthat is possible. But we don't have names. lt is aggregate information. You can't drill in, but what you can do is aggregate it and see who was exposed to our media and when they came here, what were their expenditures by restaurants, etc. For those coming from Hartford, what are they eating, what are they purchasing, what are their average expenditures on 5th Avenue South? We were able to see the dynamics of a person coming Hartford. Therefore, we reached out to our messaging to refine that to ensure the message to Chicago is different from the message to Hartford. But it can't be reverse engineered. Chairman McDaniel said it would be a better ROI analysis if you could take it to greater detail and answer Amanda's question about how long they're here for, where they stay, where are they going, what they're spending and what are they doing. That would be very beneficial. Ms. Cox said one ofthe reasons she was asking about seasonality is because the gross return on your expenses for advertising to a visitor who's going to stay in Q1 in the Chicago campaign, ifthe average 10 Ms. Becker asked what vacation guide is inserted in the newspaper. Mr. Beirnes said it's the CVB guide. F February 27,2023 Chairman McDaniel said that's a correlation that will help the TDC focus its efforts better. AMI is a readily available revenue source and could be used to test ifthere's another Hartford we're not reaching. Ms. Murietta said they looked at Zadico this year. 'Ihe markets we chose to advertise to were the ones that were corning and spending the most, notjust sheer visitation. C. Lou Hammond Grotp - Mackenzie Comerer [Ms. Comerer detailed a PowerPoinl presentation, "Services Conducted in January 2022." Part 2. Marketing Partner Reports D. Collier County Tourist Tax Collections - ParI Beirnes [Cotered earlier in the meeling.] E. Miles Partnership - Ezriqueta Balandra IMs. Balandra detailed a PowerPoint presentalion, "Paradise.com Monthly Report -.lonuory 2023"J Paradise Coast Sports Complex/Sports Facilities Companies Marissa Baker and Adrian Moses [Mr. Moses detailed a PowerPoint presentation.] Chairman McDaniel asked how the new managemenl was working out. Mr, Moses said he's the new management and it's been going well. They've been able lo leverage supporl from Parks & Rec and the management team. We're going to have to ask for more money to spend because we're making more money. IMr. Moses continued his presentation.] Ms. Becker said she was at the jazz concerl, surrounded by soccer players, and there was a fantastic, world-class musician. [t was well-managed. Ms. Baker noted that year-to-date financials from October to January exceeded revenue by $278,000. They have the same number offields as the last operator, yet they continue to do more with less. The new operator has been wonderful. It's been really fun to see a huge change in results. Chairman McDaniel noted that Sports Facilities Companies is a large company. Are you feeling the touch ofthat larger company? Ms. Baker said yes. From their onsite management here to their corporate headquarters in Clearwater, across the board, it has improved 150%. We're very happy. Councilor Grifoni noted that Paradise Coast also puts on great birthday parties for kids 1l annual ADR is over $900,000 in just room revenue, even without ancillary spend, that's impressive. That would be a powerful story. Ms. Murietta said some of this is readily available from those who have that direct information. For example, every month you see Expedia's retum on investment and you also see it by their platform, expedia.com and Vrbo, etc. There are some media that are ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), media where you can directly see how much was spent and how much was bought. You have to make things attractive to get people to click on something. It's only when you get to that clicking action on a website that you can gamer a ROAS. We can do a cumulative one. Ms. Cox said as you share with us some of the digital and social, it would be great if you shared a powerhouse evenl that brings in a ton of media. January is going to look dou'n compared with December, which isn't a refleclion on anything different. Could you compare month to month, January of2023 against January 2022? It would be great when you develop your own reporting to do something that normalizes for some ofthese events. Chairman McDaniel noted that Paradise Coast Sports Complex is so new that there is no normal. February 27, 2023 Mr. Beirnes said we're all part ofone team, so Adrian has been an absolute stellar leader. I even received a text from their CEO to see if there was anyhing we needed. On Saturday, the University of Michigan vs Marquette University Lacrosse toumament was stellar. County Museums - Amanda Townsend [Ms. Townsend detailed a PowerPoint presenlation, "Collier County Museums - Visitation January 2023"l Chairman McDaniel asked Ms. Brock how Bank of Everglades is doing. Ms. Brock said we got the $3.5 million grant frorn thc federal govemment and they're moving forward with plans fbr demolition on the backside ofthe building and getting everlthing going. They did some fundraising two weeks ago, had a music festival and raised some funds. They're still actively fundraising. It's about a $ I million shortfall, but she's confident that will happen. Chairman McDaniel asked if they got the roof fixed. Ms. Brock said it was totally fixed. Now we're working on closing the windows, etc., but the building is totally secured now, so it's moving in a good direction. Chairman McDaniel asked Ms. Townsend how they're doing on staff. He said he was at a county museum and it was closed. Ms. Townsend said museums are open Tuesday through Saturday, 8-4. Chairman McDaniel said it was a Tuesday. Ms. Townsend said that's unusual and she'll look into it. She noted that they were open on Sunday for the Everglades Seafood Festival. Ifthere are days they can meet the community's needs, they will. 10, Council Member Discussion Ms. Cox said there were a lot of water quality issues mentioned in social media over the last I 0 days. lt's a small slice of visitor sentiment and it was nice to see that calm down post-hurricane, but we're starting to see it resurface. Are we reacting or watching? What are we doing on the destination level? Mr, Beirnes said she's right. Ten days ago, red tide returned, and we monitor it and get emails daily. He's had two or three conversations to monitor sentiment on social platforms. We're monitoring the dynamics of the flow, whether it's dissipating or coming in. It's not ideal. We've been given enough blows, so we'llcontinue to monitor it and navigate it accordingly. Ms. Cox noted that the county team had an effective, quick response to amplirying UGC and actual beach conditions. Ms. Brock said the Everglades Seafood Festival was from February l7-19. It was very well attended. The weather was perfect. She'll have statistics at the March 7 City Council meeting and will bring it to next month's TDC meeting. The new team managing the event did an amazingjob. She's excited that the TDC is talking about sales tax revenue because that might help identify the impact ofEverglades City because we can't support the hefty bed tax because we don't put enough heads in our beds. But we believe we add a day to your head in the bed. Maybe there's a way we can measure that to show the true impact Everglades City has on the county. We're a very happy partner and glad to be participating. Councilor Grifoni said ifanyone is looking for something Io do on March I l, the Boss Project's Bruce Springsteen Tribute Band will be playing at Veterans Community Park on Marco lsland in our new band shell. They came to Marco before and were awesome, so it should be a fun event. Ifyou haven't seen the new, updated $12 million project, the band shell, at Veterans Cornmunity Park, it's great to see. Ms. Kerns said she was at the Naples Art District recently and they dropped off a nice brochure for us. On March 2 and March 3, they're having an open house. She encouraged people to go because we have some tremendous local artists, and you can go inside and walk through the district. t2 February 27 ,2023 Ms. Becker agreed, noting that you can see the galleries and local artists at work. Does the CVB do an).thing to apprise our visitors about what's going on? Mr. Beirnes said they have active integration within our website for all our events. lfyou're going to a destination and put in a date, it will list all the events and activities. Buzzy is very busy, as well as our Paradise Advertising team. Even things to do in general in the arts and culture community are within social media and in our visitor guide. We make sure we integrate it into all ofour conversations with media that we bring here for advertorials on the destination. That's one ofthe pillars ofour destination. We have a dedicated social media presence and are integrating all that messaging from activities and events. Ms. Becker said the information is there, but what are we doing to let people know the information is there? Mr. Beirnes said John Melleky encourages everyone to promote and we share that information. Mr. Olesky said the lmmokalee Cattle Drive & Jamboree is coming up on March 18. He asked Mr. Beirnes if he had a brochure that he could give to passengers on his airboats. Mr. Beirnes said he has an 89-page glossy CVB magazine with QR codes that provide more infbnnation that's up to date and dynamic. It goes directly to our website. It wasjust updated this moming. Mr. Olesky said he gets a lot of visitors from Lee County who want to try new things here. ll. Tourism Staff Reports - Director Mr. Beirnes said they have no staff reports today but will weave them in next time. 12. Detailed Staff Rrports (Subnr itted) 13. Next Scheduled Mceting Date/Location - 9 a,m. Monday, Nlarch 20,2023 Collier County Government Center, Administration Building F,3rd Floor, 3299 East Tamiami Trail, Naples, Florida 341l2 Chairman McDaniel said the proposal is to change the meeting date from the fourth Monday to the third Monday because he has staff meetings today and the BCC meeting tomorrow. Councilor Grifoni said you have the BCC meeting on Tuesday following this meeting, but he's got meetings on the first and third Monday of the month for City Council at 5:30 p.m. It doesn't conflict with the moming but takes up a huge chunk ofhis day. Chairman McDaniel said we'd be done at noon, take a break fiom l0:30-10:40 and presenters will be more concise. He asked Mr. Beimes if he could check altemate dates. Mr, Beirnes said he'd look into Monday. March 20. If not, we'll revisit it in April Chairman McDaniel said he can't do Wednesdays but can do Thursdays. There being no further business for the good ofthe County, the meeting rvas adjourned by order of the chairman at 12:13 p.m. (r()t.t.t PMENT COUNCIL BiI cDaniel ,Ir., Chairman These minutes were approved by the Council on f(ft LLh t.0 t'tr0}1(choose one) as presented,x or as amended l3 T]NTY U