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Home My WebLink AboutTDA Board Meeting January 24 2018 NEW HANOVER COUNTY TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY BOARD OF DIRECTORS January 24, 2018 PRESENT: Bill Blair, Mayor – Town of Wrightsville Beach Craig Bloszinsky, Mayor – Town of Kure Beach Anne Brodsky, Hotel/Motel Owner – Kure Beach TeDra George, Hotel Manager – (-150 rooms) Kim Hufham, President/CEO – NHC TDA Patricia Kusek, Commissioner – New Hanover County Nicolas Montoya, Hotel Manager/Owner – (150+ rooms) LeAnn Pierce, Hotel – Carolina Beach Angela Rhodes, County Restaurant Bill Saffo, Mayor – City of Wilmington Lisa Wurtzbacher – New Hanover County Finance Officer EXCUSED: Natalie English, Daniel Perkins, Mayor Joe Benson, Jason Bryant, Chuck Pennington, Peggy Sloan STAFF: Jeanette Foster, Administrative Services Manager/Recording Secretary Linda Brothers, Financial Analyst, New Hanover County Connie Nelson, Communications/PR Director Karla Thompson, Technology/Systems Manager Jacob Rudolph, Director of Marketing Shawn Braden, VP Marketing GUESTS: Tom Bridges, Mayor Pro-Tem – Carolina Beach Sam Black, Blockade Runner Leah Knepper, FWV Dana Moody, FWV Tom Hickey, Clean Amanda Maranelli, Clean Chairman Nicolas Montoya called the meeting of the New Hanover County Tourism Development Authority Board of Directors to order at 5:35 p.m. in Salon III of the ballroom at the Embassy Suites. 1 Chairman Montoya welcomed new Board members Mayor Craig Bloszinsky of Kure Beach and Mayor Joe Benson of Carolina Beach. He also recognized re- appointees Jason Bryant, Daniel Perkins, TeDra George and NHC Commissioner Patricia Kusek. ITEM #1 – EXCUSED – NICOLAS MONTOYA Natalie English, Daniel Perkins, Mayor Joe Benson, Jason Bryant, Chuck Pennington, Peggy Sloan. ITEM #2 – APPROVAL OF BOARD MINUTES FOR OCTOBER 25, 2017 – NICOLAS MONTOYA \[Motion made by Anne Brodsky, seconded by Angela Rhodes and unanimously accepted to approve the October 25, 2017 TDA Board minutes as read.\] ITEM #3 – FINANCIALS/ROT REPORT – LISA WURTZBACHER New Hanover County Finance Officer Lisa Wurtzbacher stated the Financial/ROT stnd Report had been consolidated for better review. 1 and 2 3% revenues are at $3,031,029 collected for four months or 42% collected. As for expenditures, $1,846,759 spent or 26%. ROT collections (July – November) are mostly showing a healthy growth. First 3% through November up 4.80%. Second 3% shows Wrightsville Beach down slightly. Complete report can be found in Exhibit Book XIII. ITEM #4 – EXPENDITURE REQUESTS – KURE BEACH – KIM HUFHAM President/CEO Kim Hufham presented funding requests from the Town of Kure Beach.  The Town of Kure Beach respectfully requests TDA funds in the amount of $26,692.00 for expenditures that were incurred for maintenance and improvements for the tennis courts and basketball court at Joe Eakes Park for the 2018 tourist season. This park has become a favorite destination for tourists who visit Kure Beach. The park has facilities for different activities that are used by tourists including tennis, basketball, baseball, disc golf, a children’s playground, etc. Funds are available and this is the first request made for this type expenditure by the Town of Kure Beach. 2 \[Motion made by Anne Brodsky, seconded by Leanne Pierce and unanimously accepted to approve the Kure Beach expenditure request in the amount of $26,692.00 as presented.\] ITEM #5- PRESIDENT’S COMMENTS - KIM HUFHAM MID-YEAR UPDATE: President/CEO Kim Hufham presented the July- December six-month update. st Room Occupancy Tax thru November, 2017 countywide for 1 3% shows FY up nd 4.80% and CY up 9.14%. 2 3% shows Carolina Beach up 14.3%% FY and 20.72% CY; Kure Beach up 7.91% FY with CY up 11.19%; Wrightsville Beach -0.08% for FY; up 6.22% CY; City of Wilmington up 0.31%FY with CY up 4.03%; Convention Center is +8.3% FY and 7.16% CY; District U +10.27% FY and +23.65% CY. Kim stated we’d had a very successful Legislative Boot Camp this past week which we sponsored. Several legislative issues that we know are out there were discussed which can have an affect on tourism to include: School Calendar Law, ROT Remittance – VRBO’s; Beach Renourishment and Inlet Dredging sustainable funding; Room Occupancy Tax usage and Off-Shore Drilling. Some of our Core Projects included:  Updated the Wilmington and Beaches brand positioning to reflect new developments for new creative campaign.  Filled our Director of Marketing position (introduced Jacob Rudolph).  Shot new photography in September, some using Drone/serial photography.  Launched new SkyNav Convention District 3D tour.  Incorporated FB live event streaming into content mix to encourage more engagement.  Launched the Extranet and conducted industry partner training on how to manage their website listings. Partners can also manager their lead proposals and room block pickups.  Published 2018 Visitors Guide.  Re-aligned sales department and market segments.  Hosted General Manager’s Roundtable.  Hosted Director of Sales Roundtable.  Hosted Legislative Bootcamp. Wrightsville Beach featured in North Carolina Travel Guide this year. (Represented on front and back covers for the coastal guide.) Discussed Convention and Sales Groups and the National Sweet Potato Convention was held last week, the first group to use a combination of the new Embassy Suites and the Wilmington Convention Center. Definite bookings at 3 this time are 35, total of 12,013 room nights, 12,582 people and economic impact of $5,319,032. It was noted the National Sweet Potato Convention economic impact was 1.6 million dollars. Discussions also included group sales activities; upcoming activities and events, etc. A full report can be found in our Exhibit Book XIII. Tom Hickey of Clean was introduced to present campaign results for July – December, 2017 (geography, timing and spending) and included geographic footprints. For the fall, the geographic areas focused on Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro and Fayetteville and the paid media timelines implemented. Results were slightly down from last year for same period of time so have put more money to the spring campaign. Went into detail on where monies to be spent on spring campaign as leads to summer business as well. (Complete report in Exhibit Book XIII.) 85% of arrivals are from North Carolina. Tom also talked about tracking exposures and when they occur, etc. and where the traffic is driven from. He noted more traffic being driven from the website, that in fact 2017 doing better than 2016 did. Leah Knepper with French West Vaughn discussed social media stating that Facebook delivers the most subscribers. She went into the Facebook fan breakdown by city, engagement actions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, stating a total of 64,030 engagements. This showed a decrease of 22% over last fiscal year. Youtube had an increase of 103% over last FY. Also talked about Facebook Live, Instagram stories, links to the Wilmington website from social media (33% increase). Under Public Relations, there were 22 earned placements (6 print and 16 online for ad value of $777.7K; 28.9M impressions or $2.3M PR value. Leah discussed earned media highlights in different publications we are involved with. In insight, strong national coverage even when Wilmington is mentioned in a round-up helps increase overall awareness for the destination. President/CEO Kim Hufham presented the update on Communications/Public Relations. She advised there have been 15 press released distributions; 21 individual journalist site visits; 600 traditional media contacts; print/internet total placements = 399; print circulation = 20,683,532 (6 months cumulative); 3,447,255 (average monthly circulation); 121,540,946 average monthly impressions. Non-medial inquiries = 862. Under activities/events participated in Travel Media Showcase and post-fam tour in August; Visit NC in-state media marketplace in August in Charlotte; SATW National convention and marketplace in October; Visit NC Atlanta media mission in November; Assigned, curated, edited monthly guest blogs, 2017 holiday events brochure and hosted several journalists. Some of the publications where we had coverage highlights were mentioned. Upcoming events include: 4  FY 18/19 Strategic Planning and Budgets – January – May.  American Bus Association FAM tour – January.  Director of Sales Roundtable/Sales Training – February.  Visit NC Media Missions (Canada – February/NYC – April.)  Visit 365 Conference – March (hosting in 2019.)  General Manager’s Roundtable – April.  NC Legislative Tourism Day – May.  National Tourism Week – May.  Riverfront Meeting planner and Media FAM – May. ITEM #6 – OLD BUSINESS/NEW BUSINESS - *STRATEGIC VISION PLAN PROPOSAL – NICOLAS MONTOYA Chairman Nicolas Montoya presented a synopsis of why the New Hanover County Tourism Development Authority is seeking services for the development of a strategic vision plan to guide tourism advocacy, community relations and strategic alliances, and product and product and partnership development over the next 3-5 years. We have a very visible Chamber of Commerce. High importance to have a tourism vision of being part of product development and formulate plans for the future for better management of our monies when we have more economic growth (3-5 years.) We represent different areas, but need to think together as a county. We know tourism is very important to our destination. Want to align with the county, city, Chamber of Commerce and get the Board more engaged. Nicolas discussed various issues of the “hats” we have to wear. We can use the plan to see where we are and where we need to go. We have plenty to do and need to get started. Addressed in the plan would be product development, advocacy, community development and engagement as well as partnerships. In the scope of work, core services are: Organization, destination and industry sector visioning, business and destination community assessment, SWOT/future map and competitive analysis, measurement and operational alignment, advocacy and community relations planning, industry partnership and alliance opportunities and product development for now and the future. RFP sent out and narrowed down to two companies which were presented to the TDA Executive Committee. A phone overview presentation was done and the Executive Committee chose DCG Consulting based on their experience, time scope, cost and Destination International and DestinationNEXT partnerships. st Nicolas said propose to begin March 1, 2018 and is based on a 4 month process, again emphasizing there is a lot of work to be done by the Executive Committee. Following further discussion, asked for motion on contract with DCG Consulting and Budget Amendment – BA#2018-003 for $20,000 to appropriate and expense professional fees to develop the New Hanover County Tourism Development Authority Assessment and Strategic Destination Plan. 5 \[Motion made by Angela Rhodes, seconded by Anne Brodsky and unanimously accepted to approve the Budget Amendment for the Strategic Vision Plan Proposal as presented.\] ITEM #7 – CHAIRMAN’S COMMENTS – CHAIRMAN NICOLAS MONTOYA **ELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR 2018 Chairman Nicolas Montoya said the Executive Committee had met and presented the following Slate of Officers to the full TDA Board to be considered for 2018. Asked if there were any nominations from the floor. There being none, the following Slate is presented to the Board: Chairman: Nicolas Montoya Vice-Chairman: Angela Rhodes Secretary: Daniel Perkins Treasurer: Lisa Wurtzbacher Nicolas also asked if there would be anyone else wishing to volunteer to be on the Executive Committee and work on the Strategic Vision Plan. \[Motion made by Anne Brodsky, seconded by Angela Rhodes and unanimously accepted to approve the Slate of Officers for the TDA Board for 2018 as presented.\] As there was no further business, meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m. Next Meeting Date: Wednesday, March 28, 2018 ______________________________ __________________________ Kim Hufham, President/CEO Jeanette Foster, Acting Secretary Minutes located in TDA Board Minutes Book XIII 6 7