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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTDC Oct 2023 MinutesST. LUCIE COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday, October 11, 2023 ◊ 12:30 P.M. MINUTES Members present: Chair Chris Dzadovsky, St. Lucie County Ronnie Nichols, Residence Inn by Marriott Port St. Lucie Cathy Matos, Homewood Suites Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan, City of Port St. Lucie Members Absent: Terissa Aronson, SLC Chamber of Commerce Lisa Cataline, Ocean Village Vacation Rentals Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson, City of Fort Pierce Donna Qvarnstrom, Cobbs Landing 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 Tayler Hardison, St. Lucie County Tourism Also present: Josh Brown, CBS 12/Sinclair Craig Campbell, SLC Tax Collector Chary Colon, SLC Tax Collector Emily Curtis, Residence Inn by Marriott Port St. Lucie Yali Genereux, Nexthome Treasure Coast Realtor Rick Hatcher, Play Treasure Coast Sports Kristi Herndon, Nexthome Treasure Coast Realtor Cameron Howard, Treasure Coast International Airport Robin Moran, Fairfield Inn & Suites Amy Trumble, Right Direction Rentals Larry Winter, Fort Pierce Vacation Rentals 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Chris Dzadovsky called the meeting to order at 12:42 PM. 2. ROLL CALL Katherine Cordero called roll. 3. SELF-INTRODUCTIONS 4. PUBLIC COMMENT Tourist Development Council Meeting ◊ October 11, 2023 Page 2 of 3 No public comment. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Because there was not a quorum, the August 9, 2023 minutes could not be approved. 6. Reports from Municipalities Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan reported the Southern Grove is continuing development. She also states the city center master plan is complete and will be presented at the next city council meeting. Chair Chris Dzadovksy shared Commissioner Johnson had a presentation with a proposed developer to possibly develop a complex with condos, a hotel, and a parking garage on the property east of Manatee Grill, and west of Square Grouper on South Beach. 7. Reports from Tourism Staff a. Financial Report: Charlotte Bireley reported June 2023 TDT collection was $431,570, a decrease of 6.4% vs June 2022. July TDT collection was $422,169, a 15.7% decrease compared to July 2022. The July collections were still 38.2% higher than the collections of July 2019, which is what has been considered the last normal year of collections. Year-to-date the overall TDT is still trending up at 8.9% and has collected just over $1.2 million as of July 2023, 27% over the 2023 budget of $950,000. b. Hotel Performance Report: Charlotte Bireley reported that occupancy, ADR, and RevPar were down in August 2023 due to the leveling out in tourism. All the Treasure Coast counties and Florida counties experienced this decline. Source: STR, LLC. c. Tayler Hardison reported that over 84,000 people visited the website during August and September with 81,000 being new users. There were also over one million interactions on the website during this time. Year-to-date, organic sessions have increased by 55%. The webcams page remains in the top visited pages on the website. Facebook reach has gone up significantly in August due to marketing campaigns. Tayler reported the most viewed and well-performing posts was a reel about Donut Circus. Tayler reported the open rate for email marketing at has increased by 8% with a 1% click-thru rate. 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 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 Tourist Development Council Meeting ◊ October 11, 2023 Page 3 of 3 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. 2024 Visit St. Lucie Marketing Plan Highlights The Visit St. Lucie team, Charlotte, Tayler, and Katherine presented the 2024 tourism marketing plan. a. Treasure Coast International Airport Update Cameron Howard, Treasure Coast International Airport Director, presented an update on the airport. b. Staff Updates Katherine reported the 5th Annual Treasure Coast Wine & Ale Trail will be Saturday, October 14th at Summer Crush Winery & Vineyard from 1-5 p.m. and encouraged the council to attend if possible. Charlotte reminded the council the FRLA Treasure Coast Chapter’s Harvest Dines event will be held Thursday, October 19th and encouraged the council to attend. Tayler introduced the new Get in the Holiday Spirit Pass, a digital pass to celebrate the holidays throughout St. Lucie County. 9. Other Business Chair Dzadovsky gave kudos to Rick and the Play Treasure Coast Sports team for their efforts in this year’s Firefighter Challenge. Larry Winters commented on the differences he sees between surrounding TDC meetings. Terissa Aronson reported the Haunted hayride will be taking place at McCarty Ranch again and the Ghost Tours will be taking place in downtown Fort Pierce again. 10. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 1:49 PM.