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TDC Minutes 09/18/2023September 18,2023 MINUTES OF TTTE COLLIER COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL MEETING Naples, Florida, September 18, 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 REGTILAR 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 (excused) Councilman Michael McComas Amanda Cox Councilor Jared Councilor 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 Buzry Ford, Tourism Digital & Social Media Coordinator Amanda Townsend, County Museums Director Claudia Cianfero, Global Sales Mgr., County Tourism Dept. I September 18,2023 Anyone who needs a verbolim record of lhe meeting ma! request a video recordingfrom the Collier Counly Communicalions & Customer Rek ions Deportment 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 A quorum of six was established by members present in the board room; a seventh board member joined via Zoom. Vice Chair Hill made o molion lo ollow Councilor Grifoni lo psrticipote via Zoom dae to extruorulinary circumstances. Second by Ms. Cox The motion passed unanimously, G0. Mr. Beirnes said the staffreport, 10.a, would be provided by Claudia Cianfero, who handles the travel trade. She'll give an update on the international travel trade. B. Approval of prior TDC Meeting Minutes Regular Meeting August 21, 2023 Vice Chairman Hill m de a motion lo dpprove lhe August 21,2023, meeting minates. Second by Ms. Kerns, The motion passed unanimously, 7-0. 5. Presentations A. Executive Director Update [Paul Beimes] Mr. Beirnes said Mr. McComas from Everglades City has been assigned to represent the seat that was occupied by Kathleen Brock, who represented Everglades City. He asked Mr. McComas to introduce himself and detail his background. Councilman Mccomas said he's a roughly 45-year resident of Collier County and a l3-year resident of Everglades City. He's been a charter boat captain, he's been in the restaurant business and currently is an Everglades City City Council member. Mr. Beirnes thanked him for agreeing to serve on the TDC. Mr. Beirnes reported ,hat: o We're deep into September, our slowest time ofthe year - not only for ourselves, but everyone in the travel industry. . Our strategy for the entire year has been to be laser-focused on the shoulder season. Season will do well, but that doesn't mean we won't execute campaigns. our focus is to do what we can for those shoulder seasons, spring, summer and fall.. In late August and through September, we've been heavily targeting Florida residents. Our strategy was targeting pre-family and those without the presence ofchildren within their household to hear about the appeal of Sizzle Dining, which is ongoing now.o Sizzle founder Guy Clark is hearing that the restaurants are packed, with very few exceptions. He's thrilled by the uptick. That indicates we've been encouraged Florida residents to attend. 2 4, Agenda and Minutes A, Changes and Approval ofToday's Agenda (No Changes) September 18,2023 Last year was a record-breaking year, record-setting on a weekly basis. He sent everyone the STR reports, which show weekly occupancy is either equalto or slightly ahead week-after- week compared with last year. ADR and RevPAR is outpacing last year's. That's great news, considering what we've been challenged with this year. Our projections for the fiscal year, which ends in two weeks, show we're coming in much stronger than we initially believed we would. As we go through the year, we continue to raise the bar as success happens, but immediately after Hurricane Ian, we did some quick math to determine what the impact could be, considering sidelining ofproperties, and it presented a significant delta. We have really narrowed that. We have fared well overall, as far as the current status of items impacting tourism, European visitors, predominantly UK, Germany and other European countries. In France, the core season of their visitation is summer. We're witnessing an uptick in numbers ofpeople coming for the summer, but we're still trailing significantly behind pre-pandemic levels. We were waiting to start seeing what was happening in July and August and some preliminary August numbers showed it was positive but falling behind 2019. Fortunately, our concentration on Canada continues to pay very strong dividends. Two airlines out ofCanada will be providing service as early as November. Lynx Airlines will be flying into RSW and a very well-respected airline, Porter Airlines, will be offering upscale economy service. Porter Airlines is a smaller airline, about I l0 passengers, with complimentary beer and wine, wider seats, no middle seat and free Wi-Fi, so it fits within our brand. We're already discussing how we can help them with marketing. Their CEO has a Naples home, so it's no surprise we have service. A week ago, he attended the Florida's Govemor's Conference on Tourism in Orlando, which is attended by all Florida CVBs. In April or May, he'd focused on the wobble and everyone was trying to identit/ what was causing it. We saw some indicators. At the time, we said it was no one particular factor but a collection of several. It ranged from red tide, the seaweed blob and the overseas appeal of European travel. The Florida's Covemor's Conference did a deep dive statistically. Every CVB and every destination in the state felt that wobble and w€nt into a deep dive, only to determine it wasn't one factor. The decline in the second quarter of2023, April-May, was the first time that a decline was recorded in Florida without a major national incident, such as 9-l l, the financial crisis or pandemic. Another factor was the appeal of car excursions during the pandemic. That fell completely out ofvogue. People are tired ofthreatening to tum around the car and go back home. While nobody stated that "Florida fatigue," an industry term for "been there, done that,,' is being blamed, there are other options out there. lntemational travel abroad is back to 2019 levels, travel by U.S. residents to Europe is up I l3% compared with 2019, and U.S. residents traveling to the Caribbean is tp l10o/o compared with 2019. In March, he mentioned that U.S. resident applications for passports were up 70%o, so we were following that trajectory. We're not blaming Hurricane Ian too much but the Govemor's Conference stated that Hurricane lan alone resulted in $ 164 dollars in negative media and I .5 trillion impressions around coverage ofHurricane ldalia. That resulted in $38 million dollars in negative media and 384 billion impressions. Fortunately, we've navigated both hurricanes well based on our research and perceptions of readiness. From January through April, a small number ofpeople felt we still had some lingering impact. In February, they were already believing that we'd be fully back and operating by June or July, so we've been fortunate. J September I 8, 2023 Overall, it did not help our trajectory. Compared to last year's historic numbers, we're doing well and making our way back from the early fiscal year deficit. As we enter fiscal year 2024 in two weeks, we're well-positioned and we know our marching orders on our marketing plan. Mr. Beirnes outlined the upcoming budget tnd marketing plan: o What we typically do every year is provide a granular marketing plan, a roughly 200-page document, which you will receive later this week or early next week. It will provide deep insight. o This year's budget is still awaiting approval by the Board of County Commissioners. Nothing is official until that happens prior to October l. We fit well within the county's assigned budget guidance, a 3.60% increase compared with last year. o As ofOctober through July, the economic impact generated to the destination is $3.4 billion. Our projected year-end TDT will be coming in at about $42.9 million compared with our adopted budget, which is when our expenditures were set at $32.8 million. We exceeded that by a 30.60lo improved performance. o We and the county embrace a highly conservative spending framework. This coming budget year reflects an operating budget ofabout $7.9 million. An additional $12.2 million is unallocated, meaning there shouldn't be a need to access those funds. They're available, but are designated and can be moved to reserves, if not needed. o The best indicator is economic impact. We focus on marketing to ensure we bring the right people in at the right time. It's notjust putting heads in beds, but the right people spending the amount of funds that impact our destination. o From 2019, a good year, we continued to raise the bar as far as the quality ofthose coming to market. ADR contributes significantly, but to be able to put heads in beds, you have to be able to bring an elevated visitor. . The fajectory worked its way up to a $3.4 billion economic impact in fiscal year 2022. The numbers for 2023 are as ofJuly, so we'll be behind last year because ofthe loss of momentum through the hurricane. . Occupancy has remained solid. For average daily rate, there was tremendous growth and that's a challenge. It's an opportunity for us. o Length of stay, which has been a focus ofours, is that equilibrium balance. It's notjust bringing more and more people in but having those who do come in stay a little longer. From 2019, it was 4.5 days to 6.3 nights. . State ofthe economy. Inflation is impacting travel decisions, but there are many anomalies for the next six months. o Those who have money still have money, but when we're looking at the impact of inflation, it's having less of an impact on those with elevated income. We're watching this very closely.. Every month, indicators start shifting around. Some say consumers are numb to the spike of inflation and just moving forward. Florida residents are very much last-minute bookers. What is new is that overall travelers, domestic and intemational, are planning trips a linle longer. That is a great indicator. That means there is forward-looking optimism and notjust a week or two weeks away. That is very hard for our destination to be able to respond.o Florida visitation most likely will be affected by travel boycotts, which isn't uncommon. Even when red tide happens, the impacts are there and we can navigate them.. Despite the impacts ofHurricane lan, the destination was able to rnaintain relatively similar occupancy, ADR and RevPAR levels with 2022. Coming out of Hurricane lan, we saw some wobble but we were able to get our trqiectory back in line.o ADR saw a drop due to two main properties getting sidelined, the Ritz-Carlton and La Playa. Both are operating now and are scaling up room capabilities. The Ritz-Carlton is making sure their elevated service meets the average daily rate. La Playa is onboarding many ofthe hotel rooms and they're operating on a limited basis. 4 September 18,2023 Chairman McDaniel noted that because of him, we're a month or two behind with the data coming to the TDC. It's important during this historically slow period that we see how our industry is performing Mr. Beirnes agreed and continaed his presentation: . There are many versions ofthat performance, such as visitation through St. Germain and traffic to our website through Miles Media. That signals an intent to visit. o Household savings among affluent trav€lers has risen, but everybody is focusing on the bottom line. They have trade-offs. Even ifyou have wealth, you also have the vulnerability of wealth. o Focus on responsible tourism is something that continues to pop up. People are notjust looking to go to a destination, consume it and leave. There's a desire to be wise, visit local restaurants and be a part ofthe local community. . Fewer people are looking for that common vacation. They want authentic experiences. We have that with our restaurants, which are not back-to-back chains. We have unique, upscale restaurants. . We have Everglades Ciry and the Everglades, incredible eco-tourism and spectacular beaches, so it's definitely a unique experience. o Luxury travel is here to stay. That bodes well for us. Over the last few years, people have sought to treat themselves. There's a great value in travel and what it brings to your soul and psyche. . Travelers are starting to use AI, which has been commonplace for only nine months for most. They're utilizing it to search for potential itineraries. Every destination is trying to figure out how AI integrates. We want to be on the leading edge, and we're focusing on that closely.o Influencer marketing still plays a key role in traveling. People want to hear stories, they want to know the Instagram backgrounds, they want to find unique experiences when in-destination, and we are working with influencers and vetting them strategically on a daily basis. o Looking at U.S. travel, out-of-state travelers are at about 63.4Yo- They make up the majority of our visitors: in-state is aboti37.lo/0. o Typical visitors to the region plan their trip about 57 days in advance. That's changed from over a year ago, when some Florida residents were booking travels on a Wednesday or Thursday. That's very difficult to navigate. . Average length ofstay is up to 16 nights. o Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, St. Petersburg and Chicago residents have the highest spending. o There was elevated spending in the market during 2023. Food and dining remains the top spending category. It exceeded 2022. o One in four visitors to the region brought children during the third quarter. o Top visitation by numbers were Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, St. Petersburg because they have the capability to navigate down here. Chicago and New York follow and are significantly higher than Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Boston. . We'r€ watching ovemight stays by Miami and Fort Lauderdale. How do we increase those who are coming from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and St. Petersburg? How do we convert them from a day visitor to ovemight? o For dining numbers, Chicago is exceptional. There are foodies coming from Chicago.o Our mission is to promote our destination and brand strategy.o Tourist development collections are targeted to exceed fiscal 2023 ta-r collections by 5%. There's still a lot ofpent-up demand. . Trying to get the intemational visitor back will be a focus, as well as occupancy and maintaining winter levels from what they were this year. Winter levels post-hurricane were solid and we saw some strength from January through March. 5 September 18,2023 o Our focus is going to be increasing spring, summer and fall levels beyond what we achieved in 2023. . We plan to maintain economic impact levels. It's hard to figure out what ADR rvill be able to deliver. lt may normalize further or continue to increase. o llow many heads and beds do we rvant? Can we manage it with the labor levels we have? What ADR do we need to achieve to make sure the RevPAR is in check? We need to maintain that peak season. . Driving incremental demand to shoulder season is extremely imponant. . We need to engage the consumer through their entire customerjoumey, before, during and after. This is not a transaction. This is something we want to build upon. We need to be out there appealing to the desire or awareness oftheir destination. We need to be educating the consumer about what's new, what's exciting and what they don't know. Then we need to push them a little further down the pipeline into converting and making sure that they close the sale. That happens through the hotels. We need to engage across all those levels. o We do nol want tojust rely on beautiful beaches, 30 miles of white sand beaches. We need them to come down with a full itinerary and desire ofwhat they're doing, restaurants, golf, eco-adventures in the Everglades and beyond. o We'll continue to evolve creative messaging to reflect the destination as a unique value proposition. We're not the cheapest destination, but one that delivers on its promise. We're going to utilize research extensively. o We're going to continue to dig deeper to find ways to become more research intelligent and to develop robust, relevant content. Mid-level, we need Io be very educational, informative and inspiring on content. We're doing better, but still have opportunities to grow. People are losing their desire to read and consume various platfonns, from video content to influencers and social media. o We'll be maintaining our brand consistency, creating, delivering and sustaining tourism value for visitors, partners and residents. o What we've heard is we need to continue to improve our ability to arm our partners, the hotels, restaurants, attractions, with all the intelligence and research we have. . That was our commitrnent. In July, we rolled out a platform that has all our educational videos on best practices, social media and many others. They're all posted so people can access them. The platform has many years of all our monthly reporls and research, so when hotels are creating their marketing plans for management or ownership companies, they can easily access the numbers and background. We wanted to arm them, but they can still call us directly.. We're showcasing the diversity and inclusiveness ofthe destination on all levels. Mobility inclusion is important because so many people have some sort of mobility challenge. Boomers were not great to their bodies and we're paying our dues now. We don't want to be blatant but will include it in imagery. You'll see people utilizing wheelchairs. If you focus on a paddleboard photo, the person has a prosthetic limb. That is the uniqueness ofour destinalion, whether il's boardwalks or Mobi-Mats, the capability of the destination is there. We want people to be able to see themselves within our destination and to be able to fully embrace it.o Our target audience is leisure, but we're going to elevate our communication to the Hispanic audience, definitely in South Florid4 Miami and Fort Lauderdale. We're also looking at whether we can or should increase that within some other target markets. That's notjust taking an ad and switching the language, but being cognizant of the audience, their needs and makeup because it is a huge portion of our visitation. . Canada has become ourNo. I international market, but we still have a lot ofopportunity. That doesn't mean we're taking our eye offthe U.K. and Germany. Claudia will provide more details later. . Sports. We've got an incredible facility, Paradise Coast Sports Complex. Wejust need to find that balance and ensure we're not driving major youth sports on the same weekend we have a 6 September 18,2023 Chubb Classic. We've been able to achieve thal this year because the sports complex now falls under tourism. o Groups and meetings. Coming out ofthe pandemic, there was a lot ofhead scratching about what we would expect to see from meetings. We're not a destination with a 7 million-square- foot under-air convention center where we need to rely on 70,000 people coming. That gives us a more opportunity to pursue thos€ individuals. o There's a sense ofresiliency that's coming out in the meetings. They might have taken the sideline for a while and they now need to get back into a regular cadence. We are planning meetings. o Weddings are a sweet spot for us. o We need to maintain our presence within feeder markets year-round, increase our emphasis on the spring and summer, utilize our segmentation to target the audience with relevant, customized messaging, and then utilize high-impact, paid and eamed media campaigns. There are no individual silos. It's important when they all cross over the four campaigns. o The fall campaign pushes Sizzle Dining, but it also goes into October and November. . For the winter campaign, we're not going tojust rely on snow to drive people down here. we'll have some presence. o The spring summer-campaign will push toward the shoulder season. o We need to be out there when people are considering a destination or travel, whether it's through ourselves or influencers sharing the breadth and depth ofeverything we have to offer. We push that down to the booking motivation within our hotels. . Those conversations will happen as early as March. Depending on the market we're trying to influence, we'll be deeper almost to the summer for the last-minute bookings. We have the opportunity to tum Florida residents around quickly on weekend getaways because they've already experienced the summer heat. We can rely on Florida residents where there are needs, gaps or slight momentary dips. o Over the last couple years, our focus on Canadians has been to push them into the summer. That's been a significant push. Canadians will come in the winter, but they will find it through our "Only" campaign. They want sun, sand and to sit around the water. We've blatantly marketed it that way and Canadians have responded in the winter, they're all here in the summer and are familiar with the destination. Now that we have increased lift, that's going to help us. o UK and Germany. We've got strong opportunities to get that market back to where it was. They visit predominantly in the summer. We will be out there in January, February, March and prior to that. Ms' Cox said she appreciates the focus on off-peak time frames. All our industry stakeholders feel the same. Each year, there's been more done to move the needle in all segments ofthe business and the results are really showing. Well done. Vice Chair Hill said he knows Mr. Beimes is aware, but his concern is market share. Regaining that will take funding and spending. lt's critical that we maintain that. Mr Beirnes responded thal: o When we look at the markets we were going affer, particularly international, one ofthe things we consciously did for the last five years is we had trade representatives in Latin America.o The market share ofthat audience has become excessively competitive. We can,t compete against the Orlandos, Miamis and Tampas and what they're spending on the Latin America market. Plus, the direct service flies into those markets.. We recognized we needed to pull back and reallocate funds. As ofOctober l, wewill not have representation in Latin America. We are redeploying that into Canada, U.K. and Germany as our focus because we couldn'tjust spread it thinner and expect something to happen. 7 September 18,2023 We have pulled back a lot ofour expenditures to focus on some ofthose more meaty, more performing elements. There are associations that are literally playing one market over another. Chairmon McDaniel told the TDC: o He found it interesting, almost counterintuitive, that we were spending time and energy on extending stays for a group that wasn't spending a lot ofmoney, the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, East Coasl crowd that was coming here. o Chicago was the clear leader across the board in virtually all spending categories but it's going to shift with demographics and economic circumstances to really hammer on the top tier ofthe people who have the disposable income and want to come here. . We may want to focus on the other coast during the off-peak season and push to extend their stay. Room nights are a little less expensive. . We should focus on the people who are spending more money historically. Mr. Beirnes rcsponded lhal: o Some ofthe spreadsheets he focused on were numbers and the history. o The amount ofmonies focused on the Northeast and Midwest will continue to be spent and will increase. e We've increased our marketing budget and are focusing on the capability of what we can do. . They're already coming over here. How do we convert that I %-hour trip multiple times into a one- or two-night stay? o They're already here, but they're not staying over. 6. Consenl Agenda All matlers listed under this agenda item are routine and action will be taken by one motion without separate discussion on each item. Ifdiscussion is desired by a member of the TDC, those items will be moved from the Consent Agenda and considered separately under New Business or Old Business. A. Beach Park Facilities (None) B. Tourism Division (None) 8 Chairman McDaniel said they'rejust day trippers. He recently was in the Nonheast and they were already hunkering down. There were a couple of nights where it was in the late 30s and early 40s in the middle of the night. They know it's coming. We don't have to remind them when there's 3 feet of snow on the ground and it's sub-zero that they need to come to Paradise. Let's remind them now while they're thinking about that. 7. New Business [Andy Miller. Coastal Management] A. Coastal Zone Management l. Recommendation to approve after-the.fact Change Order No, 1 to Agreement No. 23-8ll l, "Collier County f,mergency Berm Truck Haul and Construction - Reach A," with Phillips and Jordan Inc, to increase the contract amount from 96,723,041.50 to $6,771,654.62 to adjust the quantity ofsand; to rati! administrative Change Order No. I to Agreement No. 23-81ll, "Collier County Emergency Berm Truck Haul and Construction - Reach 8," with f,arth Tech Enterprises Inc. for sand redistribution; approve payment ofPay Applications No, I for both contractors; and make a finding that this expenditure promotes tourism (FEMA Fund 1813, Hurricane Ian Project No. 50280). September 18,2023 Mr. Beirnes read the recommendation Mr. Miller explained that we put this project out to bid based on a design that was done right after we surveyed in November-December after the hurricane. We all know that even over a weekend we can have a significant amount of shifting ofsand on the beach, so in three to five months, we had a different need for a different amount ofquantities based on the section ofthe beach we were dealing with. This item adjusts quantities and gets the contractors paid. Vice Chair Hill made a motion to rccommend tpproving the afterlhe-fact Change Order No. I to Agreemenl No. 23-8111, "Collier County Emergenqr Berm Truck Houl and Construction - Reach A," wilh Phillips and Jordan Inc, lo increase the contract amount fiorn $6,723,041.501o $6,771,654.62 to adjusl the qaantity ofstnd; to ratif! odministrative Change Order No. I to Agreement No. 23-8111, "Collier Count! Emergency Berm Truck Haul and Constraction - Reach 8," with Eulh Tech Enlerprises Inc. for sand redistribution; tpprove ptyment of Pay Applications No. I fot both contactors nd made tJinding that this expendilurc promoles tourism (FEMA Fund 1813, Hurricane lan Prujecl No. 50280), Second by Ms. Cox. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0. 8. Old Business (None) 9. lO-minute Break (None) 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 o county website link. The Resemch Data Services report is presented monthly, and other reports are presented al TDC meetings on an-as-needed basis. TDC members may request d presentation by the marketing parlner represenlalive 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 August 2023 Monthly Dashboard.] (No questions.) Chairman McDaniel said when you were talking about room rates and revenues, you had comparisons from 2019, '20,'21,'22 and where we're at for 2023. He'd like to have the 2019 data for the other information you're providing. We had a significant anomaly in 2020, then another anomaly and we're normalizing again but it hetped when he could see average room rates and other 2019 data before the pandemic. lfthat's available, that would be nice to compare with what already transpired. Mr. St. Germain said he will provide that moving forward. Mr. Beirnes said he included that with the STR repoft because it is shocking. Last year was a record- breaking year and 2021 was still pretty good. But when you include numbers on RevPAR and average daily rate, to see $50 and $70 diflerences on average daily rate is shocking. B. Paradise Advertising - Cyndy Murrieta, VP Inregrated Media (No presentation today.) C. Lou Hammond, Grotp - Mackenzie Comerer, VP PR 9 September 18,2023 [Ms. Comerer detailed a PowerPoint presentation, "Services Conducted in August 2023." [There were no queslions.] Part 2. Marketing Partner Reports D. Collier County Tourist Tax Collections - Parl Beirnes, Tourism Director Mr. Beirnes delailed a PowerPoint prcsentation fot August: o These are the numbers as reported at the end ofAugust. It was technically reported in July for consumed rooms in June. . Our updated annual forecast has us coming in at about $42.9 million at the end ofthis fiscal year. Last year's collections were $47.4 million, so that's a $4.5 million deficit. . When we came through the hurricanes, we tried to figure out ifcertain hotels were sidelined for X amount of months and figured the delta would be about $8 million. . We enter each year based on our adopted budget, which is highly conservative. When you consider that we're coming in at$42.9, our adopted budget was based on a $32.8 million, so we've got some strong performance considering the quirkiness of Hurricane Ian. Chairman McDaniel said he'd prefer that we move October, the beginning ofour fiscal year, to the top. You're reporting on a fiscal year that begins on October I and it almost looks like it's the last month. Technically, there's a delay in when it's consumed and when it's reported, so it's very confusing. Fix that, please. He doesn't want it to be confusing. He wants the revenues that are being collected in the month that they're being collected reported in the month that they're being collected, and our fiscal year begins on October l"t and ends on September 30'h. Mr. Beirnes said he'd reach out to the tax collector and finance to make that adjustment. Mr. Beirnes conlinued his prusentotion: . People are staying more at vacation homes and less at hotels and motels, so the wins are coming from apartments, condos and vacation homes. There's an uptick. . Part ofthat is because this year is the first time we've collected Vrbo, so we're starting to see impacts, an improvement of$283,000 compared with the previous year. Chairman McDaniel said he can meet with the tax collector to speak to him about that because not all of us are in the accounting business. It's easy to get lost and should be simplified. E, Miles Partnership - Ezriqueta Balandra [Ms. Balandra detoiled a PowerPoint presentotion, "Paradise.com- August 2023"J F. Paradise Coast Sports Complex/Sports Facilities Companies Adrian Moses [Mr. Moses detailed a PowerPoint presentation.J Chairman McDaniel said that with Great Wolf Lodge coming online, that's a whole other adventure There's been cooperation and communication about Great Wolf providing lightning protection when a thunderstorm comes, so their facilities can be utilized to move patrons over and house them so we're not having a mass exodus. They're also going to be a driver of additional people. Mr. Moses said we've had discussions with Great Wolf and other operators to do residential camps, where people can come and play during the day and head back to Great Wol[ so there,s a good opportunity there. [Mr. Moses continued his presentation.J Chairman McDaniel asked why the fields aren't open l0 [There were no questions-] September 18,2023 Mr. Moses said Manhattan Construction is working on its punch list for the county. There are things outside the fence and inside the fence, and they're prioritizing inside the fence so we can get on the fields as soon as possible. Ms. Cox asked when they'd be selling the fields. Mr. Moses said we've already sold them but we missed out on an opportunity because we'd already sold them. We were going on all the best projections at the time, so we expected to have these fields last Thanksgiving. There have been instances where we missed out on opportunities starting in January, where we had to split the middle school soccer between Collier County and Paradise Coast because we didn't have fields to take care oflocal programming and schools on Wednesday night, so it's affected us all year. It's one ofthe reasons our costs have been high. We had to rent other fields to incorporate larger events, so the effect is we don't have the foot traffic at the complex, which means our food and beverage numbers aren't as high as they should be for an event that size. Vice Chair Hill asked when lhe target date is. Mr. Moses said the agreement was they had 90 days to complete it. He's not sure when that ends, but we expect to have the fields available for use for November events. Chairman McDaniel said he'll find out. He knows it's been approved and came through the Board of County Commissioners, so he'll check with staffto see if they're fulfilling the contract. Mr. Moses said he saw them working there today. His concem is inside the fence, and they are prioritizing that. [Mr. Moses detailed a PoteerPoinl presentation on social media campaigns-J Chairman McDaniel said it came to his aftention that some inappropriate music played over the loudspeakers. Mr. Moses said the playlist occasionally hits a track but we rectified that immediately. Chairman McDaniel said he heard it was rectified immediately, but also heard that it happens all the time. Mistakes happen. Thanks for addressing it right away. Ms. Cox complimented Mr. Moses on the great numbers. G. County Musetms - Amanda Townsend [Ms. Townsend detoiled a PowerPoint presentation on August visitation.J Ms. Townsend noted that because the Naples Depot Museum is still closed, a virtual tour will be provided. 11. Tourism Staff Reports Ms. Cianfero delailed a PowerPoinl prcsentation on internolional travel:o The international market represented 20 percent ofour visitation before the pandemic and now it represents 90%. But we moved up to I l% mainly because Latin America, Canada and Europe book vacalions in the summer. o We've been slow to recover because Germany typically books in October and November to March. These markets typically visit in the summer and the pandemic hit on March 2020, so ll Ms. Cox asked if we've lost any business because ofthat. Mr. Moses said we're creative. We lost one event, the adult state championship, which needed eight fields in one location. But we replaced that event that weekend. [t would have been nice to have done that, but ultimately, the effect has benefited our bottom line and revenue. [There were no questions.] September 18,2023 they couldn't come during summer 2020 and the borders remained closed until November 2021. So we missed 2020 and 2021 and because the borders remained closed and the booking window for U.K. and Germany is October to March, we missed out on summer 2022 because we weren't in the brochures the tour operators produced prior to the booking window. Then there was Hunicane lan, which came after the following summer, so those circumstances affected four years ofvisitation. What strategies did we implement? We doubled down on Canada and partnered with the Weather Channel and did a large campaign in the Toronto area. She did Facebook posts in Canada, webinars and had a fam booked for October 2022, which we had to cancel due to the hurricane. But it's coming back this November. There's a lot of competition so we canceled the Latin America contract. We can't compete with Miami and Orlando and can't service visitation from this market. The providers are mainly in Miami and Orlando, where the bulk of their business is. We have more activations planned in Toronto, pending budget approval for fiscal year 2024. Porter and Lynx flights will be going from Toronto to RSW. It's a great drive market, so we're optimistic the Canadian market will continue to produce. We are directing UK and German representatives to focus on highly engaging campaigns and rebrand in U.K. and Germany. They've been tasked to re-engage the brand with consumers because they're the ones who book through travel agents. She did an international partner webinar last Thursday to show the partners how to work with our UK and German representatives. We explained what they do, how the consumer books, the consumerjoumey and that they need explain that you have to be on the receptive operators here in Miami and Orlando in order for the tour operators in those markets to find you. That was a great success, we had great compliments and we're going to put that on the partner portal and send it to everyone who participated. We are doubling down on Canad4 helping our partners book, or be bookable through the receplives in U.K. and Germany, and tasking them to focus on highly-engageable campaigns that are producing room nights, and targeting those three markets. Ms. Cox said with the change in our representation in Latin America, does that change anyhing for your travel schedule or focus. ls that still a market you'll be touching? Ms, Cianfero said it will be on a reactive basis. She won't be traveling there. Argentina and Chile are still coming here and South and Central America were up this year, in addition to Canada and Europe, but there is summer vacation during that time, so that's probably why that was up this past July. Chairman McDaniel noted that we need to watch what's coming from an industry standpoint. A large glass manufacturer is relocating here from Latin America and is setting up a large plant in Ave Maria. We can do targeted marketing intemationally for the friends, family and others within that business who will have friends and family coming here. 12. Council Member I)iscussion Councilman McComas noted that Paul sent out a press release on the National Park Service's announcement that they're going to start construction on the huge Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center, which has been in process for over 40 years. He has the renderings and site plan ifanyone wants to look at it. The Florida Stone Crab Association has amended and expanded the blessing ofthe stone crab fleet this year and invited stone crabbers from Naples, Isles ofCapri and Marco lsland to Everglades City on the last Saturday ofthe month. lt will be at Camellia Sreet Grill instead ofdownriver. Hopefully, it will be the entire Southwest Florida stone crab fleet. Ms. Cox asked to dig into 82B (business to business) marketing at the next meeting for off-season meetings and events. We've had a couple ofyears ofactive weather in September, which doesn't help RFPs and some ofthe 12 September 18,2023 travel boycotts have been an influence. What are we doing to protect our market share in that time ofyear from a meetings and events perspective? If we could delve a little deeper into that, it would be awesome. 13. Next Scheduled Meeting Date/Location - 9 a.m. Monday, October 16, 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 1l:07 a.m. CO COUNTY TO c() Ili r.,Chairnran ! Thesqminutes were approved by the Council on )2 or as amended l (choose one) as presented, l3