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TDC Minutes 08/21/2023August 21, 2023 MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL MEETING Naples, Florida, August 21, 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 at 9 a.m. in a REGULAR SESSION in Building F of the Government Complex, Naples, Florida, with the following members present: Chairman: Commissioner Bill McDaniel Jr. Vice Chairman: Clark Hill Susan Becker Kathleen Brock (moved; now vacant) Amanda Cox Councilor Jared Councilor Grifoni (via zoom) Nancy Kerns Ed "Ski" Olesky Councilwoman Beth Petrunoff (viazoom) ALSO PRESENT: Paul Beirnes, Collier County Tourism Director Colleen Greene, Assistant County Attorney Buzzy Ford, Tourism Digital & Social Media Coordinator Marissa Baker, Manager, Paradise Coast Sports Complex Amanda Townsend, County Museums Director August 21, 2023 Anyone who needs a verbatim record of the meeting may request a video recordingfrom the Collier County Communications & Customer Relations Department or view it online. 1. 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 A quorum of six was established by members present in the board room; two other board members joined via Zoom. Ms. Kerns made a motion to allow Councilor Grifoni and Councilwoman Petrunoff to participate via Zoom due to extraordinary circumstances. Second by Ms. Cox. The motion passed unanimously, 6-0. 4. Agenda and Minutes A. Changes and Approval of Today's Agenda Mr. Beirnes said there are two modifications to the agenda. A new add -on arrived late Friday and he sent everyone a note. Coastal Zoning will be 7.A.3, a recommendation to approve a resolution supporting the county's application to the FDEP, and 4.C. will be public comment on items not on the agenda. Several people would like to speak. Vice Chair Hill made a motion to approve the agenda. Second by Mr. Olesky. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. B. Approval of prior TDC Meeting Minutes Regular Meeting July 17, 2023 Ms. Becker made a motion to approve the July 17, 2023, meeting minutes. Second by Ms. Cox. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. C. Public Speakers (for items not on the agenda) Nicole Whalen, Director of Education, Naples Art Institute Ms. Whalen told the TDC. • She was at the previous TDC and BCC meetings involving the approval of TDC bed -tax dollars for grants for local arts and cultural organizations. • At the TDC meeting, they unanimously agreed those funds would be awarded to the organizations in the award month decided upon by the TDC. • At the BCC meeting, Commissioner Hall asked to revisit the use of those funds. • She wants to clarify that those funds are needed. They're important to the arts and culture sectors. They elevate our county from others in terms of driving tourism. • We have beautiful beaches and amazing golf courses, but we also have an incredibly lively and enriching arts and culture scene, both in the visual and performing sector. 2 August 21, 2023 • Although all our organizations will have continued programming and planning without these funds because it's important to community members, those funds allow us to bring in outsiders from other Florida counties or out of state to allow them to enjoy the arts and culture. • This is incredibly important to the livelihood of our full-time constituents and tourism -based constituents who come to our area. • We still plan a season without these funds, but they allow us to bring in new visitors, which in turn supports the county in other ways — through dining dollars or increased tourism year -aver -year. • She thanked there for their time and asked them to consider pushing for approval of the grant dollars. Jonathan Foerster, CEO, Golisano Children's Museum of Naples Mr. Foerster told the TDC: • He encouraged TDC members to speak with the commission about the importance of allocating resources for arts and culture tourism. • There's an abundance of natural resources in our community that draw people to our area, but why do they stay for more than a day, or two or three? They stay because there's a lot more to do than just go to the beach or go to the Everglades and we need to continue to support that. • If you look at the counties in our area, Collier County is unique because we have opportunities for people to partake in. • Our closest cultural competitor is Sarasota County and it spends three times the amount of TDT tax dollars on arts and culture than Collier County does, so you're getting a lot of bang for your buck. • We're a better representation of Florida arts and culture than Sarasota County, but we're different from Destin, Dunedin and others. • He asked TDC members to consider speaking to commissioners and encourage our friend here, Commissioner McDaniel, to support us. • Arts and culture are important to the community. He hopes the TDC believes that and sees the value in people coming with their families to spend extra time here, spend more nights in a hotel, more at restaurants and more on activities because they have opportunities in arts and culture. • He's happy to answer anyone's questions and he thanked them. Elysia Dawn, Executive Director, United Arts Collier Ms. Dawn told the TDC: • The importance of the Arts and Culture Grants is they make a tremendous impact on our organizations. • United Arts Collier would be able to continue normal operations without the grants, but we wouldn't have the budget to continue marketing to outside sectors. • We're growing and need that support to do that. We think it's very important, especially given the data we work with. We partner with Americans for the Arts to conduct an economic impact study every five years. Our Iast study showed that the arts and culture generate about $108 million annually in Collier County • It's not just the importance of the arts and how it makes us feel, it's enriching for the community in myriad ways, including a financial impact. August 21, 2023 • It's an investment in our community, not just the charity, but it's crucial to distinguishing our community as a place where the arts are celebrated and elevated. • She thanked them for making a big difference for us. Chairman McDaniel told the speakers and the TDC: • This is important. One of the speakers spoke at the BCC meeting and he's sure there will be speakers tomorrow. • It's imperative that as we move through the distribution of these funds, that the TDC, which is an advisory board to the Board of County Commissioners, ensures that anyone who's bequeathed money, especially tax money, not expend those funds until the budget is approved. • The budget will not be approved until the last budget hearing in September, although it's recommended and it goes forward. • A woman two weeks ago said her organization had entered into contracts to expend these funds for next year. She found that wasn't such a great thing. • Hopefully, the BCC will appropriate funds, as has been recommended by this committee, and it will move forward. • But if you apply for and receive the approval of the grant, it's not formally approved until the budget's adopted. A discussion ensued and the following points were made: • This never happened in the past. It's always gone through, even when we've approved it earlier. It went through seamlessly without a hiccup • It's not part of the bequeath until the budget's approved. • The hiccup came because of Commissioner Hall chose to have a discussion about the expenditure of TDC funds. He has a right, as other BCC members do, to ask to discuss it. • People who are watching today and people who will come and speak about this tomorrow shouldn't commit to spending the grant funds if they haven't been approved; that's when the budget is adopted. • We traditionally supported culture in our community. Do we need to clarify that? • We have excess tax funds, and those grants are funded. • This is a question for Commissioner Hall. He pulled the agenda item. It's unknown why he pulled it. He didn't state a reason. We'll know tomorrow. Give him a call or send him an email and ask him if he requires additional consideration or communication about the Arts & Culture Grants. • In the past, the BCC has regularly accepted and approved TDC recommendations, but those funds are not available until the budget is approved. • Grantees don't receive money until they submit proof of the expenditures. Then they get reimbursed. • If the BCC chooses to adjust the budget, those grants could be pulled. • The TDC worked with the grant applicants to make them more specific in terms of the dollar amounts and specifying what goes to marketing, talent, materials, etc. It changed the way things were done. • The new application process helps TDC members feel more comfortable recommending the grantees because it provides more oversight of how the grants will be used, both to drive tourism and enrich residents' lives. n August 21, 2023 • We need to know whether we need to add something to the application process. • What the TDC strove for several years ago was to have better clarity on the requests and tracking because the TDC heard about a billion dollars' worth of revenue coming to the county without proper tracking, measurables and milestones. • It's very difficult to ascertain the actual benefits to our community, so tracking was adjusted. • Anyone who wants to question Commissioner Hall can direct their questions to him. • Mr. Beirnes said the TDC will be reaching out to the commissioner and will meet with him about the grants on September 12. 5. Presentations A. Executive Director Update [Paul Beirnes] Mr. Beirnes reported that. • Kathy Brock has decided to return to the north. Her home sold quickly, and Everglades City chose a designee for her TDC seat, Councilman Michael McComas. His paperwork is complete, but he's traveling now and will join our next meeting. He said he'd probably join via Zoom later today. • There was an interesting anomaly in the STAR report, the COSTAR-STR report, which provides us with occupancy, average daily rate, and RevPAR. The performance didn't match up. Around July 6, the Ritz -Carlton reopened with a slow pacing of inventory and staffing and LaPlaya started ramping up, which put two more hotels into the inventory. Just as we were doing well, we started seeing a 5-7% delta. His research shows that the STR data has reflected all of Ritz -Carlton and all of La Playa's inventory as being fully available, so that will skew our performance a little lower. We reached out to them, but there's a process they have to figure out because this is not a normal process. • When Joseph St. Germain talks about performance in July, it probably will reflect that. • July seemed a little weaker than expected but even if those inventory numbers were overstated, we were solid compared to last July, which would be a huge win. • Once August arrived, we witnessed an immediate, steep decline with back -to -school and fall behaviors kicking in. Even with that anomaly, we did not see that steep decline in pace in August. We are very optimistic. Our strategy was to push hard to shoulder seasons, particularly summer and deep into fall. • When we look at numerous years that dipped off without a sharp decline, we're looking forward to it not declining as much. • In an effort to drive visitation in September, we partnered with Sizzle Dining for an event from September 7-27. It's a fixed -price, three -course dining program with more than 100 high -end restaurants that's considered a foodie delight in other destinations. It drives a lot of Florida residents into market during shoulder seasons. • We partnered with Sizzle Dining because we traditionally pull back in September as we round off the year, but it was a great opportunity to put heads in beds, drive Florida residents, pre -family and those without kids in households driven by the school calendar. It's started rolling out with a lot of social media, so we hope to see results. 5 August 21, 2023 We were notified that Arts & Culture's iArte Viva! celebration has won an award at the International Festivals & Events Association, but we don't know yet if it's gold, silver, or bronze. The awards will be given during an October 9 conference. Lisa Chamberlain, who is in the chambers with us, is our manager of groups and conventions. Last month, she received a prestigious award, an Industry Leader Award at the Smart Women in Meetings summit in New York City. Her colleagues globally recognized her as one of the one of the most influential people in the industry. [The TDC and audience applauded.] B. 4" of July Fireworks Recap Presentation Ms. Baker detailed a PowerPoint presentation and told the TDC: • After -action meeting. We met to discuss what went well and where we can improve because the goal is to continue having fireworks or some kind of event at the sports complex every year on the Fourth of July. • We started the day with remote -controlled cars, laser tag, bounce houses, face painting, the movie, "Sandlot," on the Jumbotron. There was a live reggae band at The Cove, live art at The Cove, and the evening fireworks show, the center of the event. • Attendance. We had 7,000-7,500 guests and made about $18,000 in profits. • This event was historically offered free and there wasn't a way to bring in revenue or it hadn't been done in the past. Moving it to the sports complex allowed the operator to capitalize on that and make revenue in creative ways, such as food and beverages. • Partners. We had several partners who worked together and they only had 10 days to plan and pull it together. We worked with Parks & Recreation, Sports Facilities, CVB staff, Zambelli Fireworks, the Sheriff's Office, Greater Naples Fire, EMS, Dan Summers' emergency services team, risk management, solid waste, Allied Security and transportation. We also had help from Paradise Advertising, which provided a comprehensive media plan to ensure it was communicated to the community. What went well? • The fireworks went off on time and were quality. In the last two years, we'd switched vendors and there were issues. • Media plan. We had a comprehensive media plan, a unified command between staff and emergency services. When we plan events that are over 200 people, depending on the event, the CCSO puts together an incident management team. One lead from their team helps coordinate emergency services and works with our operator and parks to ensure we're doing everything to ensure it's a safe and successful event. • Command center. We had a command bus onsite, where representatives from all parties were onboard. We were able to communicate to the command center if anything happened. • Parking. When the parking lot started to become full, Parks & Recreation staff were in the parking lots, seamlessly moving cars through and getting them parked. The provided continual updates on the radio. • Activities. The activities complemented the event. Food truck and concession inventory levels never ran out. At Snowfest, they did, so we made it a priority to ensure food trucks had proper inventory and to bring in more food and beverages. • Ingress was very smooth. Parks & Recreation manned that and did an incredible job. Areas for improvement. .n August 21, 2023 • Egress. Avoiding gridlock after the event. There was always a wait to get out after fireworks at Naples Pier, but we think we can improve. It took 40 minutes to an hour. There's a road going around the complex to the north and we anticipate having that open to help gridlock. • Daytime activities. We want to start later. We had no more than 50 people prior to 6 p.m. We started at 3 p.m. It rained and there weren't as many, but by 6 p.m., hundreds of people were enjoying activities prior to the fireworks. • Traffic plan. We plan to talk with the Transportation Department. We don't have a solution. We want to see how to help traffic on Collier Boulevard because there was a delay. We may not be able to do anything, but plan to see if there's a way to improve that. Increased signage is always helpful. • CCSO would like to have more presence next time because of the size and nature of the event. • Off -site viewing locations. Staff is looking for other locations to send people to help with parking, traffic and gridlock. • The future of fireworks. The goal is to host fireworks at PCSC for as long as we can. We have future fields, six baseball diamonds and five softball diamonds. Once those are built, we won't necessarily have a fireworks location. • Drone shows are becoming more popular. They're just as good as fireworks, but without pyrotechnics, so there aren't as many concerns about location. C. FBU Top Gun Recap Presentation (Steve Quinn, managing partner, FBU) Mr. Quinn detailed a PowerPoint about the Top Gun FBU event. • FBU holds two events here, in July and December. • 3Step Sports is our partner and is bringing three more events here before the end of the year due to our relationship with FBU and Paradise Coast. • We've started promoting the December event in 48 cities. They've started tryouts and are organizing their 6th, 7th, and 8`h-grade teams. • Next year's Top Gun event will be earlier, the end of June instead of after the July 4 weekend. • Top Gun is a showcase with football equipment in two trucks that goes up the East Coast and another truck goes east or west of Texas. There are 39 locations where we hold events from March until the end of June. • We select the top 40% of the athletes to come to Naples to participate in our Top Gun Showcase. • Athletes are invited and go to the registration portal, sign up, get a welcome packet, and learn about everything they can do in Collier County. • They come here for four days. Our survey shows some stay for six or more days during raid -July, which helped hoteliers. • When we hold regional camps in 39 locations, 200-250 kids from 5th grade through 11 th grade. They're coached by current and former NFL coaches and college coaches. • Their goal after they leave a two-day camp is to become a better football player, not just on the field, but off the field through the educational seminars and recruiting training we provide. • Hopefully, they earn free college scholarships like Buzzy's son. • Everything is about the path to Naples. #PathToNaples, #ParadiseCoast. VA August 21, 2023 • Many athletes who come to Naples will earn invitations to our other events, our freshman All -American Bowl, National Combine, and our All -American Bowl on NBC at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, Texas, where Paradise Coast gets two 30- second commercials live on NBC during that telecast. • We have a database of over 500,000 athletes and parents. Everything about Naples and the event goes to everybody. • Our trucks have a QR code. We send two trucks across the country. Passersby can scan it and it takes them to a website where it says Path to Naples. Many people call me to say they've seen the trucks. We also have logos on the back of the truck. • Social media. We have over 500,000 followers. Our social media team is phenomenal. Buzzy also does a great job. Since the tournament here, we've had over 98 million views. • When someone goes to our Instagram page, our Twitter page, they see a video of our events going on with the #ParadiseCoast and #PathToNaples. We amassed over 20,000 new followers and Top Gun alone had over 3.8 million views. • How we market. When someone gets invited, they go to the web page about the Top Gun camp. It has a parent packet about what they can do in Collier County, such as sightseeing. They have a registration portal, where every city has its own page. It talks about what to do in Naples, Florida and Collier County. • We do many social media posts and have a mobile app. We do pre- and post -event email blasts. It becomes a marketing tool, an extension of what Paradise Coast is doing 24-7, 365. • Commissioner LoCastro welcomed thousands of parents and athletes. • There were lines, so he Adrian plan to work on that for next year. Registration lines were all the way past the parking lot and the stadium was packed with about 4,000 people during the welcome orientation. • A Texas player that we named Camp King, which we promoted on social media, got 10 Division I offers within two weeks. • We sell a lot of merch. Exposure is important. 247Sports is the biggest recruiting platform in the country and helps kids get exposure to get to the next level. • We had over 120 NFL and college coaches here, coaching kids on five different fields at Paradise Coast and four fields at North Collier. • Over 20 hotels participated, including the Hilton, Ritz, Naples Grand, Residence Inn, Spring Hill Suites and Fairfield Inn & Suites, which housed a lot of our staff and coaches. Hoteliers provided good testimonials about the revenue during the shoulder season, the slow time, and how professional the event is. There were over 2,500 rooms in the middle of July. Usually we're around $2,000-$3,000 in July and $4,500- $5,500 for the December event. • He likes to provide testimonials for parents to show it's more than football. It's about creating individuals, future husbands and future leaders in the communities they return to, not just becoming a good football player. It's about becoming greater men. • Parents often send testimonials about what our program has done for them. We educate kids on what to do and not to do on social media, how to become a community leader and how to get a free education and play football. • Doing hot washes/after-action discussions after events makes it better for the next event, allowing us to work on things that we didn't do as well. We're able to give feedback to Adrian and his team. + We surveyed how they traveled here: Many by air and some by car. 8 August 21, 2023 • How long did they stay in Naples? Some stayed two nights and some stayed six -plus nights. Several families stayed an extra week. • What did they do while they were here? It was important, even with the weather, to get them out by 4 p.m. so they could enjoy dining and the beaches. Others went shopping, sightseeing, the Botanical Gardens, golfing and fishing. • How many people in each ,your groups? Anywhere from two to six plus. Nearly 20% had six -plus, which means many family members enjoyed the week with their kids. • Although it started a day after the fireworks, it was spotless. That's a tribute to Adrian and his team. 0 How was the accessibility and cleanliness of the Paradise Coast Sports Complex? Over 90% reported during the event that it was above average or exceptional. • We employ 50-plus staff, weekend warriors, to help with everything from mixing Gatorade to hauling Gatorade back and forth to driving the truck, etc. We hired all local refs. • One athlete, Kensley Faustin from Naples High School, committed to the University of Auburn. He earned an invite to the All -American Bowl on NBC, which he'll be participating in on January 9th. • 86% will likely visit Naples again. About 300 kids were juniors, so they won't come back for Top Gun next year. That could have played a role as to why it wasn't higher. • We gave over $25,000 of scholarships to local kids. • 70 athletes received full scholarships to participate in Top Gun from middle school to high school. • 30 local high school coaches assisted NFL coaches during Top Gun. We had representation from 50 states. • Football University was bought two years ago by 3Step Sports, which does eight sports nationwide. They hired him and his partner, Eric Richards, as managing partners of Football University for as long as we want to continue. • Because of that relationship, we're able to refer events to Collier County. The first one will be November 18-19, the PLC Fall Championships, a lacrosse event. There will be 1,600-1,800 athletes here and nearly 90 teams. • On Thanksgiving weekend, National Field Hockey, the biggest national field hockey convention, will be here with about 120 teams, 2,500 players and 700 coaches. • Toward year end, we're doing the Nike Lacrosse Circuit, 48 teams and 1,000 participants. • The 3Step Sports relationship involves two of the biggest football all-star events in the country, the biggest field hockey event, and two of the biggest lacrosse events coming to Collier County. • It's been great working with Adrian. Every event we do gets better, so we're excited about continuing to market the event 365/24-7. Mr. Beirnes told Mr. Quinn he went to Top Gun twice and the humidex was around 14. It started raining and it was the best feeling he'd ever felt. He's never seen so many athletes put their hands up to the sky, 6. Consent Agenda All matters listed under this agenda item are routine and action will be taken by one motion without separate discussion on each item. If discussion is desired by a member of the TDC, 9 August 21, 2023 those items will be moved from the Consent Agenda and considered separately under New Business or Old Business. A. Beach Park Facilities (None) B. Tourism Division (None) 7. New Business (Andy Miller, Coastal Management) A. Coastal Zone Management 1. Recommendation to approve the FY 2023-2024 10-Year Capital Planning document for Fund 195 Beach Renourishment and Pass Maintenance and Fund 185 Program Management and Administration and make a finding that these expenditures promote tourism. Mr. Beirnes outlined the recommendation and introduced Andy Miller. Mr. Miller said the three items are interrelated. We're trying to plan and request funding for the important work the county does for the Coastal Zone management program. The first item is our 10-year planning document, which is required as part of our agreement to get FDEP funding for our beaches and inlands. The recommendation is to approve the FY 23-24 tenured capital planning document for Fund 195 featuring our past maintenance and Fund 185 Program management and administration and make a finding that these expenditures promote tourism. Chairman McDaniel asked. • Is this plan generated off of the AUIR? (Mr. Miller said that was correct.) • He noticed in the next agenda item that there were several expenses or appropriations that were put out over there. • He wants Coastal Zoning to look into a more consistent beach renourishment program, the key to success for the health of beaches. On a very regular basis, we're hot spotting or emergency moving to take care of beaches, so he wants an adjustment in DEP permitting, so we're moving into a more regular maintenance program, as opposed to sitting on $42 million worth of reserves and waiting for a catastrophe. • Catastrophes will be fewer if we're regularly re -nourishing beaches, so he wants to report on the timing of permits, when they come and go. The permitting process is extremely arduous, so he doesn't want to be late on applications. • He wants to do more and more often as opposed to spot fixing a problem. • We've historically had circumstances where beaches have become eroded to a point where there's potential property damage even for those that are off the beach. He doesn't want that, especially when we're sitting on so much in reserves. • He'll talk with Ed Finn later today, but wants to make sure we're utilizing reserves and not pulling from other funding that's necessary for other county items. We expense close to $27 million for board -approved re -nourishment processes that are ongoing now with the dune restructure. There was $3.8 million for Vanderbilt, $3.8 million for Park Shore and he wants to make sure we're not detracting from other capital projects to take care of emergencies. 10 August 21, 2023 Mr. Miller said he understood. Vice Chair Hill made a motion to recommend approving the FY2023-2024 10- Year Capital Planning document for Fund 195 Beach Renourishment and Pass Maintenance and Fund 185 Program Management and Administration and made a finding that this expenditure promotes tourism. Second by Ms. Cox. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0; Councilor Grifoni could not be heard via Zoom. 2. Recommendation to approve the Tourist Development Council Grant application requests from the City of Naples, the City of Marco Island and Collier County for FY 2023-2024 in the amount of $13,867,200, budget these expenditures, and make a finding that these expenditures promote tourism. Mr. Beirnes read the recommendation. Chairman McDaniel asked about the $200,000 that was appropriated. It was in the AUIR for the Naples Pier and looks like it's an ongoing, reoccurring appropriation. A discussion ensued and the following points were made: • It's an ongoing $200,000. • The past ongoing amount was $200,000 yearly for Naples Pier maintenance, unless something like Hurricane Ian occurs. • County staff is working with Naples officials to better substantiate the do's and don'ts and where they're spending Collier County, TDC and parking revenue funds. Vice Chair Hill made a motion to recommend approving the Tourist Development Council Grant application requests from tlhe City of Naples, the City of Marco Island and Collier Countyfor FY2023-2024 in the amount of $13,867,200, budget these expenditures, and found that this expenditure promotes tourism. Second by Ms. Becker. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. 3. Approve a resolution supporting the county's application to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for long-range budget and plan requests for beach re - nourishment projects for FY year 2024 and 2025 and make a finding that these projects promote tourism. Mr. Beirnes said this action maintains the county's eligibility for state cost -share funding for future renourishment projects. Vice Chair Hill made a motion to recommend approving supporting the county's application to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for long-range budget and plan requests for beach re -nourishment projects for FY2024 and 2025, and fount! that this expenditure promotes touris►rx Second by Ms. Kerns. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. Vice Chair Hill said he wanted to commend Mr. Miller and his department for aggressively pursuing these funds that are available. He's been on the TDC a long time and we seem to be getting reimbursed, as we should be, and he thanked him for that. 11 August 2I, 2023 8. Old Business None 9. 10-minute Break [The TDC took a break from 10: 01 to 10:10 a.m.] 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 tax collections; Miles Partnership - Website 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 presented at TDC meetings on an -as -needed basis. TDC members may request a presentation by the marketing partner representative or by tourism staff at each TDC meeting. Part 1. Marketing Partner Report A. Downs & St. Germain Research —Joseph St. Germain, president [Mr. St. Germain detailed a PowerPoint presentation, the July 2023 Monthly Dashboard.] Councilwoman Petrunoff asked about the majority of people who said they definitely/probably will recommend the area and will return. Have we probed why they won't? Mr. St. Germain said he can check on that and get back to her. (Answered several minutes later: We do ask and if they say no, it's generally due to cost. That's No. 1. That's something we can look at yearly when the numbers get bigger to see what the No. 1 reason is. Anecdotally, cost has been an issue over the last couple of months. That's the No. 1 reason why people were not satisfied. Ms. Cox asked about Slide 13, origins with five-year trending. She expected it to be lower than 2022 and 2021, but it was surprising to see such a large delta in our Florida visitation from 2019 to 2023, about 20 points. Knowing that's a customer we depend on for shoulder season, in -state visitation, do we have concerns or a rationale on where else we're losing share to in Florida? Because that could be problematic. Mr. St. Germain said with comparisons to 2019, we had different vendors and methodologies and that's part of the difference. When we came, we were able to interview at RSW. He's not sure the previous vendor did, which would have caused a change. We'd have to do a deeper dive to see how it continues. The drops from 2020 and 2021 were largely due to the pandemic. It's been solid in 2022 and 2023. Part of the difference with 2019 was methodology. (He then answered Councilwoman Petrunoff's question above; the answer was moved to the section above.) Vice Chair Hill asked to see the year-to-date STR report moving forward. Mr. Beirnes said he could provide that. Ms. Cox asked if he could provide that to everyone. Mr. St. Germain said he'd add the year-to-date STR report to the monthly report, along with five- year metrics, moving forward. B. Paradise Advertising — Cyndy Murrieta, VP Integrated Media [Ms.Murrieta detailed a PowerPoint presentation on the Sizzle Dining Campaign.] 12 August 21, 2023 Ms. Becker noted that Fort Myers has a new ad campaign for daycations and asked what she thought of it. Ms. Murrieta thought that was interesting considering we want bed tax. Ms. Cox saw it and noted they were targeting restaurants because not enough hotels were open post -hurricane, but that was her impression. She asked for Mr. Beirnes' thoughts. Mr. Beirnes said he hadn't seen it. Ms. Murrieta said if Ms. Becker saw it, it must mean they're targeting this area. Ms. Cox asked if there would be a way to track Sizzle specific to these efforts. Are we doing anything differently? Mr. Beirnes said Mr. Germain is aware and will be drilling down more. We reached out to Guy Clarke, Sizzle Dining's founder, and he'll be collaboratively working with us on metrics. We want to see what kind of growth and performance it brings. He sees a long-term partnership and wants to measure it closely. Ms. Cox thought it would be good for post Labor Day. Ms. Becker said it's four -course meals. Mr. Becker said by the time kids go back to school, the ability for families to get away becomes nearly impossible. This is a great opportunity for us to deep dive into Florida residents, couples and those without kids in the household. They know this is the time to come, resort prices are lower and if they're a foodie, it's a great opportunity for a cost savings. In Orlando, it was an enormous driver of Florida residents and domestic visitors over time. Ms. Cox said some other markets will question the validity of the attribution, but they do a separate kind of end -tax impact, so she was curious if he was going to address that. Mr. St. Germain said absolutely. Vice Chair Hill said it's good to strengthen the offerings we have for our location's independent restaurants. The more we have, the more attractive our location becomes. Mr. Beirnes said he got tired of hearing, "If you had not created Visit Orlando, Magic Dining would be out of business." It's not just season but having people through the year. Our intent is not to have peaks and valleys. C. Lou Hammond Group — Mackenzie Comerer, VP PR [Ms. Comerer detailed a PowerPoint presentation, "Services Conducted in July 2023. " (No questions were asked.] Part 2. Marketing Partner Reports D. Collier County Tourist Tax Collections — Paul Beirnes, Tourism Director Mr. Beirnes detailed a PowerPoint presentation: • Based on collections year-to-date, we think we'll come in at $41.9 million at the end of the fiscal year. Last year, it was $47 million. • Based on Hurricane Ian impacts, which sidelined two hotels for much of the year, we thought early on that we'd be lucky to hit $40 million, so coming in at $42 million shows the consistency we've seen this year clawing our way back. 13 August 21, 2023 He's bullishly optimistic for next year. We want to get past 2023 and everything it meant, but we've done exceptionally well. We are consistently pacing over budget and are proceeding well. As of two months ago, we're collecting growth development tax from Vrbo, so that means we're collecting Vrbo and Airbnb. That was not there previously, so that helps the bottom line, especially as we go into the summer. However, home rentals have dipped slightly, so we'll see how that proceeds. Ms. Cox said she knows this was appropriately conservatively prepared not knowing when hotels were coming back online. In the third, forecasted column, does that include the "normalized" occupancy projections for the rest of this year that are more similar to 2019, rather than 2021 and 2022? Mr. Beirnes said he doesn't believe it reflects the Ritz and LaPlaya coming online and probably considers them not in the mix. It wouldn't have been for this report because it was back in May. He can follow up. He believes that for these numbers and projections, we're taking those out of the equation based on many years of what percentage is generated during certain months, so it's interesting to see whether the Ritz continues to put more rooms on at a quicker pace at a higher ADR and we'd be able to see. It would be nice to see $42 million become $43 million, but we will probably not see that or won't see that until deep into September. E. Miles Partnership — Enriqueta Balandra [Ms. Balandra detailed a PowerPoint presentation, "Paradise.com —July 2023 "] [There were no questions.] F. Paradise Coast Sports Complex/Sports Facilities Companies -- Marissa Baker, Adrian Moses, J.P. Terrasi. Mr. Moses told the TDC. • August typically should be a time we slow down and would show a downturn,. • The Parks & Rec Department helped ensure we were in good position. We were at 151 % of what was budgeted for July for revenue. That's the original budget and it was 107% of the revised one. • After a year, we've done $1.8 million in revenue, which after 10 months is about $180,000 a month, which shows the diversity of where we get our revenue from. • We're driving revenue from solid sports contracts, food and beverage, non -sporting events, supporting the county with commercial and community events. We've been able to make a commercial advancement from those events while providing a service to the community in July and August. • Lewis, his retail manager, has done an incredible job of getting into the uniform decorating business, which means we were able to get wholesale partnerships with name brand sports. Teams that play at the complex can now buy uniforms from us. • We want to be a 13213 business from a retail standpoint and when it comes to catering so we're a 9-5 business or a 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. business. • This success comes because we spend money to make money. We will be going back to the county to ask for an additional $500,000 for COGS to get us through the end of the year. We're going to raise our revenue target again. For the book of business in September, the revenue profile of events coming through, the additional cost we're 14 August 21, 2023 asking for is exactly what we need. We're confident about the revenue that will come in from those events. This year's initial budget showed the sports park losing money. The NLI (non -labor income/non-earnings) for the sports park is going to be-$169,000. As we finish July, we are $77,000 in the black, so the additional COGS money we're asking for will further strengthen NLI by the end of the year. The team works hard and gets a great amount of support from the county and Paul. We wouldn't have brought the field hockey event if the county hadn't approved the purchase of field hockey goals. We have some music events this fall. The Legends music concert is coming and we've added Pablo Cruz at the end of October with Rockstar Entertainment, which will put on an intimate show with Pablo and other artists. We're going to start an advertising campaign, a sponsorship campaign, for that. Chairman McDaniel asked if he'd be speaking to the BCC tomorrow. Mr. Moses said they're on the September 12 agenda. [Mr. Terrasi detailed a PowerPoint presentation.] Mr. Beirnes told the TDC. • The countywide collaboration was a success. The fireworks is a great example. The hotwash coming out of fireworks showed us what we could do well collaboratively. As a result, we did a deep dive for SnowFest in December and are doubling the snow. The amount of collaboration between Parks & Rec and Tourism is phenomenal. • For the first week in December, we have AYF, American Youth Football, which will be driving numbers. • We're having constant conversations with Great Wolf Lodge. It's going up fast. They're taking reservations for October 2024. Every time we talk to them they have an earlier window. • Part of the Great Wolf Lodge agreement is they're making a financial contribution to an asset. We're meeting with them Friday night to discuss a cooling zone located next to The Cove, where there's not a lot of shade and it's pretty hot. We're trying to create an amenity that's fun for kids and which could be a lifesaver for those who are overheated playing sports. That's an exciting asset. • Harrison, an intern from University of Central Michigan, is here and will be with us through early December. He's a sports and business major who is splitting time between the sports complex and tourism. G. County Museums —Amanda Townsend [Ms. Townsend detailed a PowerPoint presentation on July visitation.] Vice Chair Hill noted that two survey responses call the experience fun. Ms. Townsend said they do. Some people don't feel learning is fun, but we disagree. Vice Chair Hill asked how The Depot renovations are coming along. Ms. Townsend said we're meeting routinely onsite so they can take measurements. We haven't seen the design yet, but they're engaged and it's moving forward. 15 August 21, 2023 Councilwoman Petrunoff asked if there's an opportunity to tie in some of the programs through the end of the year with the centennial celebration. Ms. Townsend said yes and they have. Various lectures and programs were centennial focused and we're always looking for ways to bring those things together. 11. Tourism Staff Reports (None) 12. Council Member Discussion Ms. Cox said she appreciates the work from our direct and indirect sales professionals, partners and agencies. Normalization is a great word, but we're having to fight against more destinations daily to continue the great returns in tourism. We have a lot of employees who depend on our ability to do that, so she thanked them for everything they're doing. Mr. Olesky thanked all the partners for their work. Ms. Becker asked everyone to keep in mind the importance of the arts, as verified by those who came to speak to the TDC today. A great amount of revenue is generated by the arts and culture over golf. Sports is at the bottom of the reasons (in surveys) for coming, but she's sure that's somewhat skewed. She wants to reiterate the importance of arts and culture. Ms. Kerns said she'd echo that. Chairman McDaniel said he received an email from Amanda about his idea for the management of the reutilization of TDC revenues. He found what he's proposing is not within the existing statute, so if anyone has any thoughts, please share them with him. He's working with the Key West mayor West and an Orange County commissioner in Orlando and both thought it was an OK idea. We're going to start the process of making an amendment to the statute to see if it can be brought as an additional consideration for the expenditure of TDC revenues. The statute must be amended, a very long, arduous process. Ms. Becker said one of the main reasons for the staff shortage is the housing shortage. Chairman McDaniel reported that: • There are regular ongoing plans to work on that. A PUD on the southeast corner of the Golden Gate Golf Course is moving forward and ran into environmental issues. • AHAC (Affordable Housing Advisory Committee) is working on it. He suggested that the county consider the legalization of ADUs/guest houses to be built and rented out. The Golden Gate Estates area's code doesn't permit a guest house, so it's illegal to rent out. You're allowed to have a guest house but you're not allowed to rent it legally. • Several years ago, we updated the Golden Gate Master Plan and divided it into three areas. Urban Golden Gate Estates, which is west of 951; Golden Gate City, about four square miles; and Golden Gate Estates Rural, east of 951. • The thought was to consider allowing the construction of and/or the legal renting of guest homes in the Urban Estates only, not east of 951 because we don't have the infrastructure to support a doubling of density that could transpire. We passed that on to the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee for discussions. 16 August 21, 2023 13. Next Scheduled Meeting Date/Location-9 a.m. Monday, September 18, 2023 Collier County Government Center, Administration Building F, 3rd Floor, 3299 East Tamiami Trail, Naples There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting 'V►"as adjourned by order of the chairman at 11:23 a.m. COLLIER T COUNCIL These minutes were approved by the Council on CA `I' j `a._� , (choose one) as presented, or as amended 17