TDC Minutes 01/21/2025MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY
TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL MEETING
BOARD OF COLINTY COMMISSION CHAMBERS
Naples, FL Jan.21.2025
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 9:00 a.m. in REGULAR
SESSION al33299 Tamiami Trail East, 3'd floor, Naptes, FL 34112 with the following members
present:
Commissioner Chris Hall, Chair
Clark Hill, Vice Chair
City Council Member Darrin Palumbo
Susan Becker
Laura Radler
Nancy Kems
City Council Member Michael McComas
Council Member Bill Kramer
Edward (Ski) Olesky (excused)
Any person who decides to appeal a decision of the Tourist Development Council will need o
recortl of the proceedings perlaining thereto, and therefore may need to ensure thal o verbatim
recortl of the proceedings is made, which record includes lhe teslimon! and evidence upon
which the appeal is to be based, Neither Collier County nor the Tourist Developmenl Council
shall be responsible for providing this record.
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ALSO PRESENT:
Jay Tusa, CVB, Tourism Director
Sandra Rios, CVB, PR and Communications Manager
Colleen Greene, Collier County Attomey Office, Managing Assistant County Attomey
Buzzy Ford, CVB, Digital and Social Media Coordinator
Andy Miller, Coastal Zone Manager
Amanda Townsend, Museum Director
Jennifer Reynolds, Assistant Director of Corporate Financial & Management Services
Marissa Baker, Manager Paradise Sports Complex
Mackenzie Comerer, VP Lou Hammond
Ashley Cannon, Paradise Advertising ZOOM
Kristen Murphy, VP Client Services & Partner Development, Paradise Advertising ZOOM
Joseph St. Germain, President, Downs & St. Germain
Enriqueta Balandra, Sr. Project Manager, Miles Partnership
CALL TO ORDER
PLED(;E OF ALLEGIANCE
)
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ROLL CALL
AGENDA
Clark Hill motioned to approve the Agenda
Nancy Kerns seconded
Motion passed unanimously 8-0
4a. APPROVAL OF MINUTES DEC. 17,2024, MEETING
Darrin Palumbo motioned to approve the Minutes
Chris Hall seconded
Motion passed unanimously 8-0
5. TOTIRISM DIRECTOR REPORT
.Iay Tusa, CVB, Tourism Director
The Tourist Development Tax revenue for November 2024 was $2,137 ,562 bringing year to
date total to the same amount.
For visitor data,. Occupancy increased by 3.9% year over year to 61.5o/o. The average daily
rate decreased 0.4o% year over resulting in Revenue Per Available Room (RevPar) of $177 .61
Direct spending by visitors and total economic impact oftour tourism rose by 6.2% and 5.7%o
respectively.
More visitors traveled to the area for a vacation or leisure increasing from 55 to 59%. The
share of visitors staying in hotels. motels, or resorts grew ftom 31%o to 36%. The median
household income of visitors increased by 12.2Y:o year over year.
The median household income of visitors increased by 12.2%, year over year, rising from
148,000 to 166,000.
6. CONSENTAGENDA
None
7. NEWBUSINESS
?a. Recommendation to approve a work order with Humiston & Moore Engineers to provide
professional support services for the application of a modification to USACE Permit No. AJ-
2001-07621 (IP-MJD) to allow dredged sand to be placed on Delnor Wiggins State Park
Beach, untler the current library sen'ices contract l8-7 432'CZ,' for time and material
estimated at521,245, and make a finding that this item promotes tourism.
Andy Miller, Coastal Zone Manager
o This item you may or may not remember. It was actually started in 2021 . We have an executive
summary that shows that the TDC approved the initial efTort on June 28th,2021.
o The underlying effort for this item is getting some flexibility in how we dredge and place the
dredge spoils for Wiggins Pass. We've got two components permitting wise FDEP and Army
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Corps olEngineers FDEP pass with flying colors. We got that approved back in 2022. Army
Corps has been a little more difficult. We've got several projects with the Army Corps that are,
in my words, languishing.
This work order is in need head because the initial work order expired. The task is the same.
It's the Army Corps permitting effort that Humiston & Moore will do essentially for the same
amount of money that they proposed to do in 2021. Hopefully this time we'll be able to get it
finished.
Andy Miller
The library services contract is the procurement process. We advertise for various consultants in
the community to give us proposals and to be on call. In this case we call it a library of three
different consultants that are all qualified in coastal engineering. Instead of putting out an RPS,
which is a lengthy process, in order to get a consultant on board, we just handpick the consultants
that we have in the library contract to do a work order and/or consulting for us.
Susan Becker motioned to approve the recommendation
Clark Hill seconded
Motion passed unanimously 8-0
7b. Recommendation to approve a one-year renewal of Agreement No.22-7979 "Tourism
International Representation - UK and Ireland Market" with OMMAC Ltd. For Flat
Annual Fixed Price of$120,000 ($10,000 per month), and Reimbursable Expenses for Travel,
Registrations and Miscellaneous for up to $80,000 totaling 5200,000 annually and make a
finding that this action promotes tourism.
CIark Hill motioned to approve the recommendation
Nancy Kerns seconded
Motion passed unanimously 8-0
7c. Recommendation to approve a one-year renewal of Agreement No 22-7980 "Tourtsm
Intemational Representation - Germany Market" with Diamonde E.K. for Flat Annual Fixed Price
of $120,000 ($10,000 per month), and Reimbursable Expenses of Travel, Registrations and
Miscellaneous for up to $60,000, totaling $180,000 annually, and make a finding that this action
promoted tourism.
Susan Becker motioned to approve the reconmendation
Nancy Kerns seconded
Motion passed unanimously 8-0
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Susan Becker
Can You explain library services contract?
7d. Recommendation to approve the expenditure of Tourism Dcvclopment Tax (TDT)
Promotion funds to support the upcoming 2025 Naples Spring Shootout Event up to $3,000
to Kickoff Soccer and make the finding that these expenditures promote tourism.
Marissa Baker, Manager, Paradise Coast Sports Complex
. Naples Spring Shootout is a youth soccer toumament. What you'll find interesting about this
event specifically is that it's run by a Collier based business. Not only that, but they partner
with Missouri Storm, which is a local nolfor-profit youth soccer organization to put on this
event.
. They have been putting on events in Collier County since 2015, bringing in over 2000 room
nights to the destination. Now their biggest event was in 2020 where they had about 700 teams
and I believe because of the pandemic they had to take a pause for the 2021 and 2022 utd
restarted their event in 2023. The last couple years have really been about rebuilding to that
700 teams that they had in 2020.
r Currently they're expecting about 150 teams this toumament and over 250 room nights, which
is the minimum requirement for funding.
o We anticipate that they're gonna bring in about $4,500 in the TDT and they will be spending
at least $7,600 in a facility rental. We do see a retum on that investment with that staff.
Susan Becker moved to approve the recommendation
Clark Hill seconded
Motion passed unanimously 8-0
8. OLD BUSINESS
8a. Request the TDC review the Expenditures of Tourist Development Tax supported fund for the
first quarter ofFiscal Year 2025 and the final report for Fiscal Year 2024.
Jennifer Reynolds, Assistant Director of Corporate Financial & Management Services
. At the end of the year, we had committed approximately $4,000 and we actually spent $28
million and received $60 million in revenue. We ended the year with a surplus, which would've
then moved into the reserves as an unaudited balance.
o For 2025 We have committed 25 million and these are total TDT funds. As of Nov. 8th' we
spent $4 million, and we received $3.9 million in revenue so thr and still have $138 million
available to spend and 165 million projected revenues.
Susan Becker motioned to accept the report
Clark Hill seconded
Molion passed unanimously 8-0
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9. Ten Minute Break
IO. PRESEN'I'ATIONS
l0a. Joseph St. Germain, President, Downs & St, Germain
I want to five you a walktkough on how we collect at least 200 surveys each month. The
surveyors are conducting interviews every week at hotels, events, attractions, airpo(, with the
art & culture team and sports team.
The population in this sense is every visitor to the area. With research and statistics, our goal
is to estimate what is representative ofthe entire population from a statistical perspective.
We've introduced also we online data collection, like I said, allows us to get more data with,
without increasing the cost.
22Yo of yov visitors had a household income of over $250,000. So that luxury visitor that I
know has been an opportunity for this team, this Board, Paradise, for November at least, that
seemed to be moving in that direction.
One area of concem. We asked them a question about value for your travel dollar. They rated
that an 8.8 out of 10, that's not a bad number. And to give you a comparison lo previous years
8.5. So, it went up.
l0b. Ashley Canon & Kristen Murphy, VP Client Services & Partner Development,
Paradise Advertising (via Zoom)o This is our marketing activity for the month of December and it's really impressive. You'll see
here our impressions were over 7.7 million with over 440,000 clicks. We were able to track
our website visits to nearly 21,000.. An overview of December: Advertising drove 133 room nights which resulted in almost
240,000 gross bookings.r For airline tickets, almost 1500 book primarily fiom that New York market. Our booking
pattems, you'll see here 43.5Yo of travelers are booking between a 7-to-13-day window and
then an average of 5 days, which is great economic impact. Measuring and driving these
measurable revenues during December was really impressive.
o The campaign for disaster recovery started Dec. 9s through the 31't andjust a snapshot of what
we are working on.
II. A(;ENCY PARTNER REPORTS
11a. McKenzie Comerer, VP Lou Hammond
. Overall, in November we had over l3 million immediate compressions and 129,000 in media
value.
o Featured in Travel & Leisure was the Ritz Carlton and Tiburon celebrating the holidays with
your family.
o In another travel outlet, Family Vacationist, they highlighted the J.W. Marriott, Marco Island
and the adults only tower at that property.
o Another piece touched on the Great Wolf Lodge.
o All of these included links to the website.
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. Atlanta Joumal Constitution highlighted culinary destinations and touched on the Winter Wine
Festival.
o We are talking to the stone crabbers and getting insights into what's unique about this 55th
annual Everglades Seafood Festival.
o Sails Restaurant was in Open Table and one ofthe top 100 restaurants of2024.
o Good Housekeeping Family Travel Awards included several properties.
I I b. Enriqueta Balandra, Senior Project Manager, Miles Partnership by Zoom
Jay Tusa
. Last year the website contract with Miles Partnership was set to expire in August.
o The TDC and CVB team had worked with Procurement and putting out an RFP. We had
received several quotes back, proposals back from several firms. At the same time the County
was working with Resource X to improve operational elllciencies within County government.
o Through that process it was decided the tourism website would transition under the County's
IT infrastructure using Granicus. So, Granicus is who the County presently uses and that's the
County's provider. A contract with Granicus was finalized in October by the County. Over the
past couple of months, the tourism team has been working with Granicus and Paradise
Advertising to develop a new tourism website, which is on track to launch midsummer.
r Our website is still maintained by Miles but that agreement will expire the end of March.
Chairman Hall
r We want proof, we want to be stewards of public money, whether it's TDT money or whether
it's general fund money. And the way that I look at it and don't take this negatively, I said in
my opening comment that I'm looking forward to doing the creative thinking and maybe doing
things differently than we've ever done them in a creative manner.
. My priority with TDT is our infrastructure. It's our beaches, our bathrooms, our showers, it's
our facilities, the things that draw people to Naples. Getting them world-class is my priority
with that money.
Clark Hill
o I'm concemed now that we're not showing any progress with the website. There are some ROIs
in, digital marketing that weren't very favorable. I think we need to really take a hard look at
that and make sure that we're in the right places and spending the right amount with the right
efiorts.
Enriqueta Balandra, Senior Project Manager, Miles Partnership by Zoom
r We had over 92,000 sessions and over 130.000 views. Our engagement rate was around 38
seconds. Our traffic numbers are up year over year.
o The top pages are Beaches, Snow Fest at Paradise Sports Complex, and our homepage.
I 1c. Amanda Townsend, Director, Collier County Museums
o Last year in January, we started opening the tavem car, the silver train car, and the caboose
whenever the Lionel Train Museum was open at the Naples Depot. We're not adve(ising that
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specilically because there's not a DA compliance associated with that and, and not a DA
compliant restroom associated with that
About 30% of our visitors come from the local community, either fulltime residents or part-
time residents. And we get a nice mix of folks fiom around the State, Country and
Intemationally.
The Lionel Museum is open Saturdays and Sundays, October through March.
12. 'I'OURISM STAFF REPOR'TS
I3. COUNCIL MEMBER DISCUSSION
l{.NEXT MEETING DATE
February 18,2025
I5. AD.IOURNED
There being no furlher business for the good of The Counly, the Tourisl Development Council
meeling was adjourned at 10:43 a.m-
COLLIER COUNTY
TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
The Minutes were approved
Chairman Chris Hall
Date: J--l{ -
asp resented or amended
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