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TDC Minutes 06/19/2023lune 19,2023 MINUTES OF TTM COLLIERCOUNTY TOUzuST DEVELOPMENT COLINCIL MEETING Naples, Florida, lune 19,2023 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 at9 a.m. in a REGULAR SESSION in Building F of the Govemment Complex, Naples, Florida, with the following members present: Chairman: Commissioner Bill McDaniel Jr. Vice Chairman: Clark Hill Susan Becker Kathleen Brock Amanda Cox (excused) Councilor Jared Grifoni (via Zoom) Nancy Kems 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 Marissa Baker, Manager, Paradise Coast Sports Complex Amanda Townsend, County Museums Director 1 June 19,2023 Anyone who needs a verbatim record of the meeting may requesl a video recordingfrom the Collier County Communications & Customer Relalions Departmenl 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 was recited. 3. Roll Call Mr. Beirnes said Ms. Cox has an excused absence and Ms. Petrunoffhas an excused absence due to a conflict with Naples City Council. A quorum of six was established by members present in the board room; a seventh joined via Zoom. Vice Chairman Hill made a motion to ollow Councilor Grdoni to porticipate via Zoom due to extraordinnry circumslances. Second by Mr. Olesky. The motion passed unanimoasly, 7-0. 4. Agenda and Minutes A. Changes and Approval ofToday's Agenda Mr. Beirnes said there were no changes to the agenda. We have a short and yet complex, long meeting agenda today. There's only one item, our Arts & Culture Grants for this year, which fills up a very sizable binder. A lot of work has gone into it. This would have been the month John would have discussed the depth everything he does for Arts & Culture during Tourism Staff Reports. so lhat will be woven in. Ms. Becker made d molion to approve the agendo and the May 15,2023, meeting minutes. Second b1, Ms Kerns. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. 5. Presentations Mr. Beirnes reported that: . Since the last meeting, we went to IPW (lntemational Pow Wow), the largest trade conference, where the world's travel buyers get together with all the travel sellers in the United States. About 6,000 delegates attend this event, which is like speed-dating, with 90,000 scheduled meetings over four days. e It's an incredible opportunity to have conversations around the globe about sentiment and any barriers. We had a full slate of interviews. The key takeaway for Florida is that intemational pent-up demand remains very strong due to the pandemic and borders closingo The biggest barrier coming out ofthat was that when the intemational audience started to book and travel to a destination, average daily rate had escalated significantly, plus occupancy had filled up most rooms, causing them to be very expensive and in some cases, there were no flights to bring people to these destinations, so pent-up demand remains. 2 B. Approval of prior TDC Meeting Minutes Regular Meeting May 15, 2023 A. Executive Director Update IPaul Beirnes] June 19, 2023 We've seen a tremendous amount of European travel going to destinations like Portugal and Spain. One of his greatest lears was whether there was a changing trend or paradigm and that intemational visitors would start finding those less expensive destinations and get used to them. We didn't want to lose the traction we've maintained over the years. The conversations we had with all the intemationals during IPW is that the desire to travel to Southwest Florida remains extremely strong. The average daily rate this year is still exceptionally high. We're starting to see normalization every week during the STR repo(. The good news is that, overall for Florida, intemational is witnessing a normalization of ADR and they think there is still potential this summer. International wholesalers were saying the phones are ringing offthe hook for travel in July and August, so there is strong desire this year and moving forward. Occupancy remains close to 2022, a remarkable year. It's slightly lower every week, but the fact that we're pretty much in the same trajectory every week is exceptional. On July 6, the Ritz Carlton will reopen. That will be a tremendous opportunity to increase our overall average daily rate across the destination with more hotel rooms. Every July, we have our annual marketing summit, where we share our strategic marketing plan with all our partners in the destination and have a one-day dialogue. We're going to be hosting that at the Ritz Carlton on July 19, so we expect significant attendance, and we will integrate the zutz-Carlton's incredible remake-over and provide tours so people can see that. He will continue to share the weekly STR report so you can see those dynamics and numbers and if you have questions, feel free to reach out. B. Arts & Culture and Grants Presentation [Mr. Melleky detoiled a Pov,erPoint presentation] Mr. Melleky told the TDC: o He's been in thisjob since February 2022. His background was in nonprofits, including events, fundraising, management and festivals and events throughout the country. Before this, he was at the Ringling Museum, the State Art Museum of Florida. He's also been a lundraising consultant for events and festivals, including the Edison Festival in Fort Myers. He started his career in Richmond, VA, as a volunteer for l5 years with the Christmas parade, which draws 250,000 people. Later, he was CEO ofFiesta San Antonio, a large citywide festival with 100 events and 3.6 million people who celebrate the arts, culture and heritage of the Alamo and San Antonio. o Arts and culture are an important part ofour county and are an economic driver. In 2015, the Americans for the Arts conducted the Arts & Economic Prosperity (AEP5) study. In the meantime, local organizations got together to work on a cultural plan, which was approved by the Board olCounty Commissioners in March 2020 and that created a vision.. They wanted to have Collier County communities that are creative, vibrant hubs for local arts that are connected and work together to celebrate culture and places collectively, and coordinate through businesses and organizations. r A new AEP is being conducted now after being delayed by COVID. We're finalizing thal study and collecting data. They looked at a nationally known index called the Creative Vitality Index, which looks at the economic relationship between for profit and nonprofit sectors ofthe arts. That index estimates that we have $1.7 billion ofsales and income lrom the arts community in Collier County. That creative sector has 9,245.iobs, with taxes collected from things such as software publishers, independent artists and promoters ol performing arts. 3 June 19,2023 Mr. Melleky conlinued his prcsentation: o That sector of roughly 9,000 peopte includes photographers, writers, authors, chefs, head cooks, software developers, graphic designers, interpreters, interior designers, musicians, editors and everyone who works in the fine arts community. . They also looked at the non-profit sector, which is estimated to have 3,000 ofthose 9,000 jobs and has a $107.7 million economic impact in local and state govemment revenue. o We've been working with United Arts Collier to implement that for this year. They're finalizing the inputs and talking to organizations about their finances so we can have data, which should be out early next year. o He's also working with United Artists Collier on where we are in that plan, how are we doing and how we're implementing it. Everything we're talking about today is in that plan. It's important that we work together to implement that plan. o We'll be presenting that to a lot of arts and culture organizations in the next lew months. o A second area is building relationships with different organizations. He works with arts and culture organizations to assist them with partnership programs and oppoffunities. He serves as their voice and helps develop marketing messages and initiatives about arts and culture. It's important that we include what arts and culture are in Collier and tell visitors that story. . The first thing we did was create a section on the arts on the partner page for arts and culture. We're also building an asset inventory of marketing assets for arts and cultural organizations, updated photos and information, more web pages about the arts and cultural organizations. We want to promote the message that the arts are important and they're an overall part of our marketing message for our tourism industry. o The organizations are working together and are creating new and different initiatives to create new opportunities for residents and tourists. o What first started with the cultural plan and initial discussions was iArte Viva! The organizations were working together and wanted an initial project to show they were working together, with us as the conduit. o We created an ad for the organizations, and they offered a page in their playbills and magazines to showcase the arts. The first ad shows the different arts and cultural organizations, their logos and that it's important that they're collaborating. The message is: Collier County is culture. It's been a great success. People from different industries and organizations enjoyed the ad and we're going to continue with it this year. o We're working now with the organizations to create an ad that will include some of their information and a photo that represents what they're doing in the arts and culture realm. That collaboration is important. . One ofthe biggest collaborative initiatives is iArte Viva!, a celebration of Hispanic arts and culture. The organizations started the initiative after meeting to discuss a strategic plan and they had an idea. They were discussing upcoming initiatives and realized there were themes that worked together and they wanted to showcase Hispanic arts and culture.o This initiative is part of the strategic plan for the county and fulfills something that was more long-term, but we were able to get it done now. It's grassroots in nature and the organizations came together and started it. It started with lour or five organizations running five or six events and tumed into l2 organizations and 50 events by the time we rolled it "1 Ms. Kerns asked if that was annually. Mr. Melleky said yes, annually. a June 19, 2023 out in September 2022. Duing that time, we came up with the name, branding and a website to showcase lArte Viva! and that arts and life are important in Collier County. As of this month, 20 organizations are involved with over 70 events, including 48 unique ones. Some organizations ran an event each month, so that was only counted once as unique. It's a great success, especially after the hurricane. The arts organizations came together, were flexible and moved activities to create an initiative. We had some initial events in September and October and it started to morph in November, with Naples Botanical Garden opening "La Calavera Catrina," large, 8-foot sculptures of skeletons to celebrate Dia de Los Muertos, the day ofthe dead for the Hispanic culture. It's happening countywide. As organizations modifu their schedules, they were trying to find activities to work on together. Building that collaboration was important. Most importantly, with the grant program this past year, we were able to include many of those events. We increased grant funding during the current cycle because we knew it would be an important initiative, a way to kick slart ;Arte Viva! and buitd that yearly event. It was a perfect time to build a coalition of organizations, partnerships and collaborations. As time went on, the collaboration was shown in various activities. Ricardo Soltero, the artist behind "La Calavera Catrina" at Naples Botanical Garden. came and worked with the Naples Art District, and they created their own Catrinas that represented Frida Kahlo lor their Frida Fest Day. Gulf Shore Opera had different events with its Latin-infusion program and brought it to the Marco Island Center lor the Arts. As we build the events, we've added components, such as "Christmas Around The World" in Immokalee and the "Margarita & Taco Festival" in Ave Maria. Frida Kahlo was a common theme lor the organizations. What made it successful was the organizations working together to come up with the theme and celebrate the work, life and inspiration of Frida Kahlo. There were many activities involving Kahlo and her work, including Naples Art District and its Frida Fest, where they created murals, had large skeletons, and different artists created portraits of Frida Kahlo, all painted in her style. Naples Botanical Garden had "Frida and Her Garden," which is going on through September 10, which involves the natural elements, plants and animals that were part of Frida Kahlo's life and her inspiration. Naples Art Institute just had its "Isabelle de Borchgrave and the World of Frida Kahlo" exhibit where Frida Kahlo's house, La Casa Azu[, her clothing and her life were all created out of paper. Opera Naples crealed an opera, "Frida, the Opera," which celebrated her life and showcased her strength through different adversities and tragedies in her life. We're looking lorward to building this program for next year. The organizations are already working on events and we hope to have those on the website by the end of July to roll out lArte Vival into the next year. How did we market ;Arte Viva!? The website is one of the top five pages of paradisecoast.com each month and is usually in the top five. Total page views from September through May totaled 55,000. We kicked off a social media campaign called Meet the Artists. where people can see a short snippet ofa video. They click and tinl< to a longer video on the website. That's going very well. We target adults 25-65 with an interest in arts, culture and Hispanic heritage. Part ofour digital campaign was a slideshow on Smithsonian.com that showcased four or five ofthe different events through time. These digital campaigns are important because 5 a a they're growing the audience. That occurred from Tampa, across to Palm Beach through Orlando, and then down to Sarasota, Fort Myers and Collier County, as well as the East Coast, with Boca Raton, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. o We first had a paid social-media campaign and that reached over I million individuals, with 3.1 million impressions and engagement of over 138,000 people. . Our organic social media, where we post information about events has grown and reaches over 800,000, with nearly 29,000 people engaged. o How does that relate to attendance? We asked organizations to provide attendance figures and we've been working on that and crunching numbers. o From September through May 10, 262,013 people attended ;Arte Viva! events countywide. The highest total was in December, with over 54,000 people attending the Johnsonville Night Lights at Naples Botanical Garden. That's a big event, with 39,000 attending in December. That showcases how organizations can use current assets and events to showcase Hispanic arts and culture. . People loved the Hispanic culture and said it's the first time they've seen their culture in Naples. The responses have been tremendous. o The months with the highest number of events were during season, February, March and April. The highest was Aprit, with l4 different events, followed by March, with 12 events. . Organizations are working to showcase what's happening, especially during season, as well as throughout the year. After the hurricane, we were able to come back online quickly. October had three events and by November, I 0 events were running, so the organizations were very flexible and that shows the resiliency ofarts and culture organizations to come through and build programming. o What kind of results are we getting from marketing campaigns? We used ADARA to analyze the digital campaigns. For people exposed to lArte Viva! digital ads, it showed there were 4,772 searches for more information about Florida's Paradise Coast. That led to 108 hotel bookings and $38,632 generated in hotel revenues fiom bookings before those people made it here to visit. o ADARA's destination expenditure analysis has data through 2022.We looked at people exposed to digital campaigns. There were 14,865 households exposed to the campaigns who then visited here in 2022. While here, we counted their credit card swipes and those households generated a spend of$7.1 million, with $1.7 million spent in local restaurants.o We're still analyzing data and information about the campaigns. o Does anyone have any queslions about arts and culture programs and where we're going? Ms. Becker asked if ;Arte Viva! was going to continue with a Spanish emphasis. Mr. Melleky said yes. Ms. Becker asked if that would be in perpetuity. Mr. Melleky said they will make another decision around this time next year to see what our organization is doing. We have quarterly meetings with the organizations and that's grown from about 20 people to almost 40 on the calls to see what's happening and to build programming. Ms. Becker asked if they'd investigate other cultures. Mr. MeIIeky said that's something we're going to look at, as wel[. Ms. Becker said what she found interesting at the garden is that all the instructions in the Frida Kahlo exhibit are translated into English, Spanish, and Haitian/Creole. June 19,2023 6 .lune I 9. 2023 6. Consent Agenda All matters listed under this dgenda item are routine and action will be taken by one motion reithout seporate discussion on each item. Ifdiscussion is desired by a member of the TDC, those items will be movedfrom 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 A. Recommendation to approve Tourist Development Tax Grant Applications for FY 2023- 2024 Marketing Grants (Category B) ($74,6a8) and Non-County Owned/Operated Museums (Category C-2) ($750,000), approve grant award offunds in the amount of $824,648 for both programs contingent upon FY 2024 budget availability, and make a finding that these expend itu res promote tourism. Mn Melleky provided an ovemiew of the progrdm: . We've made updates and changes to the program since he spoke to the TDC last year. o The Tourism Development Tax grants process is a program funded by the hotel surtax, and it's applied from rental fees paid by visitors for short-term accommodations, such as hotel, motel rooms, condominiums, vacation homes and other rental sources. o As the Tourism Development Council, you administer funds that are collected into a grant program for arts and cultural organizations. The funding is allocated from tourism dollars and goes into different buckets to fund this grant program. Thanks to our 1.6 million visitors yearly, we can provide funds to organizations to help them drive tourism to Florida's Paradise Coast. o Pursuant to Florida Statute 125.0104, one ofthe main purposes of the funded events and activities is "the attraction oftourists, as evidenced by the promotion ofthe activity to tourists." It's important to have a marketing component to drives tourists to our destination.o The activities funded "must demonstrate the intent and abitity to attract visitors to Collier County," and the grants provide funding for exhibition, support and marketing expenses for the organization. . Last year, we redefined what "museum" was and expanded it because, as times have changed and organizations have grown, we had to expand the definition to create a way to equalize funding opportunities for museums and performance organizations.o Last year, the TDC allowed the cost of productions to be included, which is similar to what we do lor exhibition costs for museums. That now can be provided for both visual arts and performing arts, so we have all the different arts organizations covered. 7 Mr, Melleky said that's correct. Those are the top three languages in Collier County. We're constantly looking at data, what they're doing and organizations are developing what it will be. June 19,2023 After our discussion last year, we had a chance to update the program and develop ways to build on its strengths and enhance reporting through an online platform lbr grant applications. That allowed organizations to have consistent applications, so when they were reviewed, everything had the same number ofresponses and different components. That gave the organizations the ease to fill and submit entries. Everything is now computerized. We're no longer on paper. That system allows us to pull the estimates in the applications into final reports. They can put in final tallies, so we can analyze estimates versus what actually happened. It's also allowed us to simplifo the process to review applications through a panel process. We're going to move financial reporting and final reports to the online system, so it's not paper and emails. That will be a portal to make it easier for organizations. During this transition period. we had training sessions about the online platforms that were recorded and placed on the partner page for arts and culture partners to view any time. It's a resource they can reference to understand the application process. Additional training sessions were held on financial reimbursement forms and final reports. As this year's grants are being completed, we' also do that in September as this new process starts, so they understand the process moving forward. We held a panel review of the grants online to help in developing recommendations. There was a panel ofcounty employees who got together in tourism marketing and different cultural organizations that reviewed applications for several criteria, including artistic value, cultural impact, tourism impact, marketing plans, economic impact and general impact. Everyone reviewed it online and put scores in online so we could average the scores and recommended amounts. Then we held a meeting to come up with the recommendations that you have today. As we revised the grant program and final report, there are certain measures that help determine the projects. What are we going to do with the data? For years we've been collecting data and haven't really done anything. How are we going to analyze it and how will we help the organizations make changes so they can analyze data themselves? We're going to look at financial results. They submitted estimated financials. The final report will include submitted actual financials so they can compare the two and provide an analysis ofwhat they think worked and what didn't work. A large section ofchanges is involved in visitor analysis - surveys and attendance. We worked with Downs & St. Germain in this grant cycle to come up with a consistent survey method for organizations because we didn't have one in the past. We created a template ior them to ask certain questions. There's a short seven- or eight-question survey. or they can use a long survey, the survey you see each month lrom Downs & St. Germain, with a couple ofadded questions. The short and long surveys have three questions that are important: l. Was this program a meaningful artistic or cultural experience?; 2, Does the program broaden the sense of the Paradise Coast arts and culture?; 3, Was this activity or event the main reason you came to the area? We worked with Downs & St. Germain, which is providing more services to the organizations. They can come and do surveys for organizations if the crowds are large enough. They also can provide an e-mail that organizations can send out to event attendees. They collect that and crunch the data to provide a detailed summary report to the organization. It's helping organizations collect the data we need. Three organizations took advantage ofthis, and found it very useful and are continuing to do it. They're putting it into their final grant reports. so the;ystem is working. a 8 June 19. 2023 o As we moved forward with grant changes for the program in 23-24, we asked questions we didn't ask before. We asked for their survey, their results and an analysis ofthe results. o We asked organizations to supply estimated attendance by county residents, Florida residents, national and intemational. Ifthey don't know, there's an "unknown" choice that they can put in so we can estimate attendance. What we're going to do moving forward is add Lee County, so we can estimate how Lee County residents are coming in to visit, whether it's for a day or ovemight. The final reports will have this data and information as the estimate and it will then be put into the final analysis. o One of the biggest application changes is the marketing section. Marketing is an important part of why we're giving grants. We want to show how we're marketing to tourists. The organizations had a way to develop a marketing plan for their projects, and the goal is to promote tourism. Part of the changes is that we wanted to clarifr different ways they could market to different tourists and audiences to showcase the results. o We set a region, a 50-mile radius, from the event. Because we're one ofthe largest counties in the state, we had to define what was local and non-local. o The organizations found there are ways to market to tourists in the local region that can be reimbursed. For instance, there are magazines produced only for hotel rooms and those go to tourists. That's something that can now be provided as part of the grant. Ifan organization puts an ad in that magazine, we'll reimburse for that program. o Airport advertising, especially in the baggage-claim area, also is geared mainly to tourists, so that's something that can be reimbursed. Media companies, as they expand, have regional packages that extend to neighboring counties, so those can be included. o Marketing out-of-region and out-of-county is included as part ofthe marketing plans. o The final reports will include a detailed analysis ofthe marketing campaigns so we can get consistent measures for ads, digital and social media campaigns. There will be a section for organizations to analyze marketing trends to see what's working and what's not, because we don't want them to do the same thing again. We want them to keep growing audiences to see what's working and creating a more robust marketing plan for their activities.. These changes are now currently in the cycle and we won't see results until February 2024. Then we'll see if we need to revise or change anything in the application. o We also changed economic indicators. In the past, we provided organizations with an Excel spreadsheet to fill out. There wasn't a lot ofdetail and information given about how to do that, so we've changed the way that's being calculated. Through the applications, the organizations now provide estimated attendance and where attendees came from. He and tourism staffenter this information with actual room rates from the STR reports based on the time frame of when the event will run. It's entered into the Oxford Economics Event Impact Calculator for festival and cultural events. Those calculations are then obtained through the modeling and then placed into the Executive Summary. These estimates then will be compared once they tum in final reports. we'll then run the calculators again to see how they're doing based on estimates versus the actuals, so we can get better numbers.o Looking at application results from this year, which opened in January and closed at the end of March, last year's grant applications were at a high. Seven organizations applied two years ago; 14 last year; and this year, 13 applied.r Although it's a slight decrease, we're starting to be more consistent with grant applications and one new organization applied this year.o The total amount requested was over $1.4 million, a l60z increase over last year. That shows this grant program is one of the largest in the county for the arts (and one of the only ones) and it's one of the only ones to support exhibitions, productions, festivals and events. 9 June 19.2023 Organizations' needs are increasing. We looked at the number of requests for ;trfle V'y2t Five out ol l3 programs requested funds for ;Arte Viva! The ;Arte Viva! dollars are a bit down from last year to this year. The average lasl year was about 46%o ofdollars for lArte Viva! and there was a slight decrease, a percentage ofdollars this year. Mn Melleky detailed the Execulive Summary: . There are two types ofgrants, marketing and museum grants. The delineation is the purpose ofthe grants and the organizations and where funding is coming from. o The museum grants are one funding stream that comes from tourism dollars and the marketing grants are taken as a portion of marketing dollars allocated to the Tourism Department. All grants are reimbursable, so the organizations must spend the money and then request reimbursements. They tum in financial reports that contain detailed information, with invoices, proof of payments, proofthat a payment went through their bank, and also provide advertisements. We also check that the logo is on the ad placement for the approval. r Marketing grants, Category B: These support reimbursable visitor marketing activities and can include direct-marketing campaigns, website upgrades, advertising and public relations costs to help drivs tourists. . There are three grants for your consideration. The organizations and their representatives are here in the room or on Zoom todav. Mr. Melleky listed the organizations applyingfor granls: o Florida Stone Crabbers Association is requesting dollars to promote the 541h Annual Everglades Seafood Festival in February 2024. The request is for reimbursable visitor marketing activities through various media platforms and website updates. Estimated attendance is 70,350 people and economic indicators include 1,495 ovemight visitors and tourism tax revenue of$16,546. Staff recommends funding up to $41,335. o Gulf Shore Opera is requesting dollars to promote the 23-24 lineup of opera productions and concerts in numerous county venues. Funding was requested for reimbursable visitor marketing activities to promote their county events. They have an estimated attendance lor Collier events of$2,125 dollars. Economic indicators include 319 ovemight visitors and tourism tax revenues of $3,651. Stalf recommends funding up to $20,000.r United Arts Council of Collier County, now known as United Arts Collier, is a new applicant this year. Their marketing campaign is to promote arts and culture through online and digital calendars, rebuilding their website and developing new campaigns. They want to set benchmarks for growth and the determination oftheir local audience versus their tourism audience, so we can see where they are and set a benchmark for them to help us. Staff recommends funding up to $ 13,313.o Are there any questions on these grants? Chairman McDaniel said the last two have no economic impact with regard to the collection of TDT tax. Is that because they're new? Mr. Melleky said that for United Arts' online marketing, they don't know their measures, so this will set benchmarks for the future. fught now, they have an e-mail tist and they aren't sure about who's local, so they need a beginning. chairman McDaniel said the first two are requesting grant funds well in excess of the tax generated. Is that because ofthe aggregate impact that those events provide? 10 June 19, 2023 Mr. Melleky said the way the calculator works is he takes attendance estimates and inputs visitors and non-visitors to create a percentage ofvisitors. It then calculates ovemight visitors, so even though they might have 2,000 people, the calculator figures that out based on certain economic factors from different organizations and l0 different data models that calculate the percentage ol ovemight visitors. From that, he takes the hotel rate for that time period fiom old STR reports. He was pulling 2019, instead of 2022, which has higher numbers, to keep it a little low. Then that comes up with the tax revenue, which is based on ovemight visitors, estimated from that calculator. Then that comes up with the dollar amount for hotel room nights. Chairman McDaniel asked about dollar amounts for Category B and C that were generated for the year. Are we pulling grant funds from reserves or from operating funds? Mr. Melleky said it's part of the 23-24 budget. As tax collections come in, grants are anywhere from $600,000 to $900,000. What we try to do is pull everything from what we're collecting this year to then use for next year. Ifthere's a shortage, some ofthat can be pulled from reserves. Chairman McDaniel said he didn't see that part. He was looking to see where these monies were coming from, whether they were coming out of generated revenue or out ofreserves. Mr. Melleky said the goal is that these come out of the generated revenue and that we don't have to pull the reseryes. Mr. Beirnes said the only exception was last year, when we increased the budget by $200,000. Historically, we hadn't had such a robust, focused, singular campaign, so we decided we wanted to have a jump start and were able to pull $200,000 dollars out of reserves to bump it up to around S950,000 to retreat back to the regular budgeted pace and level. Ms. Kerns said it's terrific because we have this money allocated and when it wasn't being used, it was almost criminal, so she commends him. Mr. Melleky said we're here to make them successful. We want to bring more tourists here and we want everyone to enjoy the arts and culture because there's a breadth of activities. Chairman McDaniel asked if he wanted a motion. Mr. Melleky said no, he'd outline the next section first. Mr- Melleky outlined the 10 Category C-2, Non-County Owned Museum, applicdnts:r This category allows funding for marketing, as does the marketing category, but also allows lbr funding for exhibitions to help drive tourists into our destination. It also funds performance productions that help drive tourism here.o Artis-Naples requested dollars for reimbursable visitor marketing activities, exhibition and production support for the Naples Intemational Film Festival in October 2023 and the Ger.shwin Centennial Celebration in February 2024, which will include performances by the Naples Philharmonic and the debut ofan exhibition entitled "George Gershwin and Modem Art: Rhapsody in Blue" in February 2024. Estimated attendance is 345,000 annual visitors, which includes 33,000 visitors for projects in the grant. Economic indicators lt Ms. Kerns noted that in years past, we haven't allocated, despite having a certain amount to allocate for these grants - and not all olit was used. We went through a process where we streamlined the application to make it easier. The real change has been you (Mr. Melleky). You've really facilitated this process because when she looked at the application over the weekend, she noticed it was very lengthy and assumed applicants were getting much needed help. Mr. Melleky said yes, we're there to support them. If they have questions and they want him to look at ads before they go in, that's something we're here for. a a June 19,2023 include 4,1 30 overnight visitors and tourism tax revenue of $51,925 for the programs. Staff recommends FY 2024 funding of up to $120,000. Golisano Children's Museum of Naples is requesting dollars for reimbursable visitor marketing activities and exhibition support for two traveling exhibitions, Thomas and Friends, and Scooby-Doo! Mansion Mayhem, which will run from January through September 2024. They estimate 108,000 visitors, including 59,700 adults. Economic indicators include 1,076 ovemight visitors and tourism tax revenue of$9,238. Staff recommends funding up to $90,000. Gulfshore Playhouse is requesting money for reimbursable visitor marketing activities and production support for its 23-24 season, which includes "26 Miles," which is part of ;Arte Viva! and will be held in October. Estimated attendance is 43,280 lor the season. Economic indicators include I ,173 overnight visitors and tourism tax revenue of $ 14,722. Staff recommends funding up to $85,000. Marco Island Center for the Arts is requesting dollars for reimbursable visitor marketing activities, exhibition and production support for its 23-24 season of arts exhibitions, musical events and theater perfornances. Portions of the musical interlude series and exhibitions will be part of lArte Viva! Estimated attendance is 8,605. Economic indicators include 1,277 ovemight visitors and tourism tax revenue of $ 16,083. Staff recommends funding up to $40,000. Naples Art Association, now Naples Art Institute. is requesting dollars for reimbursable visitor marketing activities and exhibition support for its 23-24 season, which includes exhibitions ofVincent Vasarely and Norman Rockwell. They're also producing an event called "Weaving Narratives," a creative placemaking project that's part of lArte Viva! Estimated attendance is 9,21 9 for the programs. Economic indicators include 13 1 ovemight visitors and tourist tax revenue of$3,979. Staff recommends funding up to $100,000. Naples Art District is requesting funding for reimbursable visitor marketing activities for its 23-24 season ofactivities, which include a Frida Kalho portraits and Picasso Palooza weekend, which are part of lArte Viva! Estimated attendance for the year is 37,000 people. Economic indicators include 875 ovemight visitors and tourism tax revenue of$10,370. Staffrecommends funding up to $55,000. Naples Botanical Garden is requesting funding for reimbursable visitor marketing activities and exhibition support for its "Johnsonville Night Lights in the Garden," which runs from November 24-January 1,2024. Estimated attendance is 54,276. Economic indicators include 7,860 ovemight visitors and tourism tax revenue of$81,368. Staff recommends funding up to $ I 00,000. Opera Naples is requesting funding for reimbursable visitor marketing activities and production support for its 23-24 season, including the 4th Annual Festival under the Stars, the only outdoor opera in the country. A portion of this festival is part of ;Arte Viva! Estimated attendance is 5,653 people. Economic indicators include 126 ovemight visitors and tourism tax revenue of$1,807. Staff recommends funding up to $100,000. The Holocaust Museum is requesting funding for reimbursable visitor marketing activities and exhibition support for three traveling exhibitions throughout the year. "Forgeries and the Holocaust," "Stitching History" and "Lawyers Without Rights.,, Estimated attendance is 8,337. Economic indicators include 257 ovemight visitors and tourism tax revenue of $2,424. Staff recommends funding up ro $15,000. The Naples Players is requesting funding for reimbursable visitor marketing activities and production support for its 23-24 season. Estimated attendance is 30.g50. Economic 12 June 19,2023 indicators include 3,795 ovemight visitors and tourist tax revenue of$54,437. Stall recommends funding up to $45,000. Are there any questions? Ms. Kerns said the funding for Naples Art Institute, $ I 00,000, and the garden at $ 100,000 have substantially different indicators. How is that justified? Mr. Melleky said their audiences are different. "Night Lights in the Garden" has been running for five or six years and sells out. The Naples Art Institute isjust starting its exhibition programming and their numbers are smaller. However, it's to help support them and we feel that that the Vincent Vasarely and Norman Rockwell exhibits will be high visibility for the county, especially Norman Rockwell, and also the "Creative Placemaking" opportunity, which is part of ;Arte Viva! Ms. Kerns thanked him. Chairman McDaniel said he'd like to see the individual funds, the revenues generated and the revenues and reserves that we're pulling from in the event that it's requisite. The totals are in here for what the grant requests are, but where the money is coming from came to us months ago. He wasn't able to ascertain that here. That's just an FYI. Mr. Melleky said that for clarification, marketing grants come from Fund I 84. Chairman McDaniel said he sees where they're coming from, what the total amounts are, but he couldn't track back to where the money was, what the dollar amount was in those funds that we're pulling from. Ms. Kerns said she's not following what he's asking. Vice Chairman Hill asked if that was a percentage allocation. Chairman McDaniel said he wasn't able to ascertain it. It says where the funds are. Is there $10 million in fund Category B or 2? That's the number he's looking for. Ms. Kerns said you're asking for what we have in the budget. Mr. Melleky said this is based on the budgets that you're going through. A discussion ensued and the following points were made:r Can those numbers be provided to the TDC?o The last grant request was the only one that generated more TDT tax money than the request for the grant.o That's not how it's funded.o Economic impacts are nice, but we need more.o That's why the county is asking for attendance figures that split out county attendees. Florida and intemational, so we can have a better measure, the one you're looking for in September. Chairman McDaniel called for a motion. vice chairman Hill made a motion to recommend approving Tourist Development Tax Grant Applicationsfor FY 2023-2024 Marketing Grants (Category B) ($74,64g) and Non-coutt4t Owned/Operated Museums (Category C-2) ($750,000), opprove grant award offunds in the amount of s824,648 for both programs contingent upon Fy 2024 budget avoitability, antl make afinding lhat these expenditures promote tourism and made afinding that this item promotes tourisrrl Second by Ms. Becker. The motion pdssed unonimously, 7-0. l3 June 19,2023 Ms. Kerns thanked Mr. Melleky for an excellent presentalion. Mr. Beirnes thanked Mr. Melleky, noting that this presentation involved a lot of effo(. There's been a tremendous amount of conversation momentum, something we've been talking about for years to reach this level of commitment to afls and culture. It's a great testament to how great a fiber it is within the tourism community. 8. Old Business None 9. l0-minute Break [TDC members took a breakfrom 10:35-10:47 a.m. after 10.b.] Part l. Marketing Partner Report A. Downs & St. Germain Research -.,/o.rep h St. (iermain, president Mr. Beirnes said since we've recalibrated the timing for this meeting, we're finding we weren't getting complete and finalized numbers and we were having to update them. As of this month, we will start a clean slate, audited. This will be April numbers, but as we've discussed, he and Joseph receive all the main numbers and we're aware that weird anomalies are popping up. We will not save that information for two months to share with you. This gave us a clean slate and we can anecdotally add what we're already starting to see in the main numbers. [Mr. St. Germain detailed a PowerPoinl presentarion, May 2023 Monthly Doshboard.] Chairman McDaniel asked what revenge-travel spending is. Mr. St. Germain etplained: o As we came out ofthe pandemic and people hadn't been traveling much because they were staying in their homes, they had more money saved. As people felt comfortable getting back out into the market, they spent often. . Not only was it pent-up demand because they've been inside so much, especially for folks outside Florida who had a lot more restuictive pandemic regulations back home, but the amount of savings Americans had was higher than we've seen in a long time, so they so they largely used that money to go out and get back out from that world.r That was the pent-up demand. Revenge spending is what we saw a lot of in late 2021 and early 2022.It was particularly prominent in Collier County from January- April2022. At that time, Florida was one ofthe lew markets that had been open for a significant period of time, whereas the New Yorks and califomias of the world were just starting to reopen. As a result, the Florida markets did very well during that period. t4 10. Marketing Partner Reports These reports (Marketing Partner Reports - Downs & St. Germain Research; Paradise Advertising & Marketing, Inc.; Lou Hammond Group; Convention & Visitors Bureau PR Team; Collier County Tax Collector - tourist ttlc collections; Miles Partnership - llebsite Analytics, Digital & Social Media: Paradise Coast Sports Complex, and County Museums) are provided to TDC members on a county website link. The Research Data Services report is presented monthly, and other reports are presenled at TDC meetings on an-as-needed basis. TDC members may request a presentation by the marketing partner representotive or by tourism staff at each TDC meeting. h:ne 19,2023 Chairman McDaniel said he's seen a lot of these indices and declines in revenue. Because we're dealing with discretionary income of the American companies, we're dealing with a 9o/o+ inflation rate adjusted for housing, fuel and food, the th-ree most inflationary commodities. When you add real estate taxation and doubling ofinsurance policies and electric bills over the last two years, that's what's been happening in the Northeast and north central U.S. We're about six months behind their economies, so we should be paying attention to that. All the indicators are there lor a correction, whether it will transpire or not. but that hasn't been regularly mentioned. The media is going to have direct impacts, but what's transpiring is more global. Mr. Beirnes said what was interesting is that April is when we expected to see some peaks due to Easter, which didn't happen. We agree all of the economic impacts in the Northeast resonate here, but what's interesting is they resolved or diminished in May. It was a weird 30-day anomaly. Maybe everybody was hyper-focused on the recession and maybe there was that restriction, but May is doing well. Sentiment in general modified, so we continue to watch these things. Mr. St. Germain said that everything you've just said we've been seeing economically and we agree with what the chairman said and we're following it, as wel[, B. Paradise Advertising - Zuisa Laurelli, Accounl Director, Client Services IMs. Laurelli detailed a PowerPoint presentation.] Ms. Kerns asked what she meant by negatively targeting county residents. Ms. Laurelli explained that it meant they were not targeting county residents. Ms. Kerns said that would be a better way to say it. Ms. Laurelli agreed and apologized for the confusion. [The TDC took o short break; see No. 9 above] C. Lou Hammond Group - Mackenzie Comerer, VP PR [Ms. Comerer detailed a PowerPoint presentation, " Services Conducted in Moy 202 3. " [No questions were asked.] Part 2. Marketing Partner Reports D. Collier County Tourist Tax Collections - Paul Beirnes, Tourism Director Mr. Beirnes detailed a PowerPoint presentstion: o The collections show rooms consumed in April and reported to the tax collector in May.o Where you start seeing the difference in the top line is it's down $787,000, the big wobbte we talked about. r Year-to-date, it's only down 9.67%o, which is reassuring.o In our adopted budget, or expectation that we earmarked for our budget. we had expenditures earmarked at about $32.8 million. We 're on a trajectory to achieve a $40.8 million collection, which is below the $48 million last year, but that's because of the hurricane and other hiccups, so we're doing exceptionally well. 15 Mr. Beirnes said we did well in January, February and half of March until April began to wobble, which was an anomaly. Colleagues at IPW alt saw the same thing and believed it was from several factors, red tide, the seaweed blob and anti-Florida sentiment, but it's since resolved. We have a tremendous amounl. of marketing going on now, pushing toward spring and summer. so if we get continued momentrnn in our favor there, the fact that Ritz Carlton reopens on July 6 will bode well. Some ofthose expectations are not factored in here. The forecasted budget of$40.8 million is based on the trajectory ofcollections year-to-date. The red line shows the sharpness of the decline in April. We are starting to see as we're deep into June that it may have provided good momentum, continued distance between the red and the blue line as we go inlo summer. E. Miles Partnership - Paul Beirnes (Miles Partnership's ffice was closed today) [Mr. Beirnes detailed a PowerPoint presentation, " Paradise.com May 2023"] [There were no queslions.J F. Paradise Coast Sports Complex/Sports Facilities Companies Marissa Baker, Adrian Moses Ms. Baker said the City of Naples will not be holding fireworks, so we will have fireworks on Tuesday, July 4e, and the gates will open at 6 p.m., with a band at The Cove at 7 p.m. Fireworks will go off at 9 p.m. Mr. Moses said the second quarter follows on from the first quarter. We've reported monthly that we're exceeding revenue targets in many different ways and had to go after creative revenue sources because we haven't had the facilities made available to us. But that hasn't stopped us. We've been aggressive, we've been competitive, and he's pleased to report these numbers [Mr. Moses detailed the May 2023 TDC Report.] Chairman McDaniel asked when the new fields will open. Mr. Moses said there are some discussions this week between the county and the contractor. There's a lengthy punch list ofthings that need to be completed by the contractor, but it shouldn't take them too long, not more than two to three weeks, and then it will be a counting process to get us to the point where we need to be in terms of required permits. G. County Museums - lmanda Tou,nsend Ms, Townsend reported that the architect expects the Depot Museum will open in June. [Ms. Townsend detailed a PowerPoint presentotion on Moy visitation.] flhere were no questions.l 11. Tourism Staff Reports (Provided by Mr. Melleky in 5.b above) 12. Council Member I)iscussion Ms. Becker said she noticed that their Naples representative wasn,t here again. June 19,2023 t6 hne 19,2023 Mr. Beirnes said Ms. Petrunoff has a conflict with the new TDC schedule for the third Monday of the month, when Naples City Council meets. Ms. Becker asked if Naples City Council changed its meeting date. Ms. Brock said no, the TDC changed its meeting date. Ms. Becker asked what they could do. Mr. Beirnes said that's a good question and one he will ask his team. Our scheduling provides a challenge, and we don't have an answer at this point. Ms. Kerns suggested that the city select a staff representative. It's a tragedy that the city isn't represented any longer. Ms. Brock said the county's first fireworks will be held on July l, Saturday night, in Everglades City. Ms. Kerns said she saw a vehicle with Alaska license plates here. Ms. Brock said Everglades City has five or six seasonal residents from Alaska. Ms. Kerns asked if they drive down. Ms. Brock said they do. 13. Next Scheduled Meeting Date/Location - 9 a.m. Monday, Jtly 17.,2023 Collier County Government Center, Administration Building F, 3rd Floor, 3299 East Tamiami Trail, Naples There being no further business for the good ofthe County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the chairman at I l:33 a.m. COLLIER CO LO ()lrNCtL Bill niel r.,Cha These minutes approved by the Council on or as amended (choose one) as presented, MES't DERIU 17