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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTDC Aug 2023 MinutesST. LUCIE COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday, August 9, 2023 ◊ 12:30 P.M. MINUTES Members present: Chair Chris Dzadovsky, St. Lucie County Terissa Aronson, SLC Chamber of Commerce Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson, City of Fort Pierce Ronnie Nichols, Residence Inn by Marriott Port St. Lucie Cathy Matos, Homewood Suites Donna Qvarnstrom, Cobbs Landing Members Absent: Lisa Cataline, Ocean Village Vacation Rentals Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan, City of Port St. Lucie Paul Taglieri, New York Mets Staff present: Katherine Barbieri, St. Lucie County Attorney Charlotte Bireley, St. Lucie County Tourism Katherine Cordero, St. Lucie County Tourism Rubi Dial, Assistant County Attorney Tayler Hardison, St. Lucie County Tourism Also present: Travis Burton, iTrip Treasure Coast Josh Brown, CBS 12/Sinclair Craig Campbell, SLC Tax Collector Kevin Greene, Play Treasure Coast Sports Rick Hatcher, Play Treasure Coast Sports Mike Nole, Nole Vaca Rental Jay Spicer, St. Lucie Fair Larry Winter, Fort Pierce Vacation Rentals 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Chris Dzadovsky called the meeting to order at 12:34 PM. 2. ROLL CALL Katherine Cordero called roll. 3. SELF-INTRODUCTIONS 4. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comment. Tourist Development Council Meeting ◊ August 9, 2023 Page 2 of 3 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson made a motion to approve the minutes from June. Ronnie Nichols seconded. 6. Reports from Municipalities Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson reported the City of Fort Pierce is looking at a grant and partnership with St. Lucie Transit and a grant through FDOT to expand the area that Freebee serves. Construction will start on King’s Landing in the next month and a half. The City of Fort Pierce and Little Jim have had good conversations about the contracts regarding the property Little Jim is on. He also reported the Commission is talking about a downtown master plan and possibly implementing some changes by Melody Lane. The City of Fort Pierce Commission also approved the Seven Gables proposal presented by the St. Lucie County Chamber of Commerce. 7. Reports from Tourism Staff a. Financial Report: Charlotte Bireley reported May 2023 TDT collection was $454,065, although a decrease of 12.6% vs May 2022, it is still the second highest collections of tourist tax for May, and higher than May 2019, which is what has been considered the last normal year of collections. Year-to-date the overall TDT is still trending up at 13.2%. As of May 2023, the tourist tax collection is 9% higher than budgeted for the entire year. b. Hotel Performance Report: Charlotte Bireley reported that occupancy was down 12.9% in June 2023 vs June 2022, but ADR is still up 1.7%. June 2023’s occupancy is comparable to June 2019, further suggesting the industry is beginning to normalize, however ADR is still significantly higher. Source: STR, LLC. c. Tayler Hardison reported all the analytics for Google have switched over GA4, Google’s new analytics platform. She reported that over 96,000 people visited the website during June and July with 92,000 being new users. There were also over 934,000 interactions on the website during June and July. June and July’s user count increased vs 2022 with Florida, Georgia, New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania being the top five states visiting the website. The webcams page remains in the top 6 pages visited on the website. Tayler reported the open rate for email marketing at 24% and a 3% click-thru rate. Facebook reach has gone up significantly verses June and July 2022. Tayler reported the most viewed and well- performing posts are restaurant and food related. d. Earned Media: Katherine Cordero reported over 3.2 million dollars in earned media year-to-date, a 442% increase from the $602,957 from this time last year, and over 77.6 million results/clicks, an 148% increase from last year’s 31.2 million. She highlighted two articles on the list that were aimed at foodies and highlight Tourist Development Council Meeting ◊ August 9, 2023 Page 3 of 3 restaurants in St. Lucie County including Little Jim, On the Edge, Berry Fresh, and the Marketplace at Sandpiper Bay Resort. These articles were results from the Nature & Wildlife FAM that took place in late March, early April and can be found on FoodieFlashpacker.com, which has reached over 2.35 million unique readers in the past year, with 2.34 million being new users. The last article she highlighted has been syndicated on MSN, Post.News, Medium, and Newsbreak, resulting in over 20 million clicks in the 10 days since it’s publishing. 8. Regular Agenda a. Play Treasure Sports Tourism, Quarterly Update Rick Hatcher, President & CEO of Play Treasure Coast Sports provided an update and presentation on Play Treasure Coast Sport’s third quarter performance and activities. a. Visitor Tracking & Economic Impact Study – 2nd Qtr. Report President of Downs & St. Germain Research, Joseph St. Germain, presented the results of the second quarter of the visitor tracking & economic impact study. b. Staff Updates Tayler reported the Visit St. Lucie team conducted their first 2023 activation at Citi Field (home of the New York Mets) where over 100 people came to the booth to play plinko and learn about St. Lucie and enter to win batting practice tickets. Charlotte reported that Home2Suites is opening in the coming months in Fort Pierce and will be adding 95 rooms. She also reported that the Visit St. Lucie logo is undergoing a refresh and more updates will come in the next meeting. Charlotte also presented the Treasure Coast International Airport’s new website. Charlotte also announced there was an agreement reached with OutFront Media to rebuild the 4 billboard structures at the County’s landfill property. The agreement will allow digital ads to promote Visit St. Lucie and its assets. 9. Other Business Cathy Matos announced the Florida Lodging and Restaurant Association will host Harvest Dines again on October 19th. Terissa Aronson announced the St. Lucie County Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Sip & Shop at the Seven Gables House on Thursday, August 24th from 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson announced Main Street Fort Pierce has been recognized for being active for 35 years at the Florida Main Street State Conference. 10. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 2:02 PM.