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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTDC Oct 2024 MinutesST. LUCIE COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday, October 30, 2024 ◊ 1:00 P.M. MINUTES Members present: Lisa Cataline, Ocean Village Vacation Rentals Lauren DeAcetis, New York Mets Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson, City of Fort Pierce Ronnie Nichols, Residence Inn by Marriott Port St. Lucie Donna Qvarnstrom, Cobbs Landing Marika Sexton, Sandpiper Bay Resort Members Absent: Terissa Aronson, SLC Chamber of Commerce Chair Chris Dzadovsky, St. Lucie County Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan, City of Port St. Lucie Staff present: Charlotte Bireley, St. Lucie County Tourism Katherine Cordero, St. Lucie County Tourism Ciara Forbes, St. Lucie County Assistant Attorney Tayler Hardison, St. Lucie County Tourism Also present: Josh Brown, Sinclair Broadcasting Travis Burton, Treasure Coast Vacation Rentals Rick Hatcher, Play Treasure Coast Sports Martine Lapointe, Courtyard Port St. Lucie Tradition Emily Rappolt, Dave & Busters Charlene Robles, Homewood Suites Tradition Kelsie Stickles, Holiday Inn Express & Suites Fort Pierce West Amy Trumble, Right Directions Rentals Larry Winter, Fort Pierce Vacation Rentals 1. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson called the meeting to order at 1:06 PM. 2. ROLL CALL Katherine Cordero called roll. 3. SELF-INTRODUCTIONS 4. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comment. Tourist Development Council Meeting ◊ October 30, 2024 Page 2 of 3 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Marika Sexton made a motion to approve the minutes from August 14, 2024. Commissioner Lisa Cataline seconded. Motion passed. 6. Reports from Municipalities Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson reported the City of Fort Pierce is still in discussion with the Kings Landing project, and the 90-day period of bringing on a partner with Audobon development group and ensuring a hotelier is on board is coming to a close. The East Coast Greenway Trail is underway in the area and currently working on connectors to connect north and south county for cycling and hiking enthusiasts. 7. Reports from Tourism Staff a. Financial Report: Charlotte Bireley reported June TDT collection was $382,148, an 11.4% decrease compared to June 2023. July 2024 collections were $563,849, a 65.5% decrease compared to July 2023. Year-to-date, the TDT collections are down 9.3% compared to 2023. Even with the normalization of tourism in Florida, the year-to-date numbers are still pacing 44.3% higher than those of 2019, what is to be considered tourism’s last “normal” year. b. Hotel Performance Report: Charlotte Bireley reported that June occupancy was down 13.1%, ADR down 8.3%, and RevPar was down 20.4%. July occupancy was down 10.7%, and ADR was down 8.7%, and RevPar was down 18.4%. Source: STR, LLC. c. Website, Social Media, and Email Marketing Report: Tayler Hardison reported 85,000 users visited the Visit St. Lucie website with 1.3 million events taking place, and 412,000 key events. She also reported there was a bit of a drop in monthly user count compared to August and September of last year. She credits this to launching the new website in which media marketing needed to be paused for a few days, then it needed to be paused again during Hurricane Helene, and some funds that were usually going to drive website traffic were used to promote the Locals Only campaign. The top states visiting the website include Florida, New York, Georgia, Ohio, and Virginia. Tayler highlighted social media interactions were high throughout August and September even with media and marketing paused, with high link clicks, and high performing reels. She also reported three emails were sent, with an open rate of 25% and a click rate of 1%. The open rate increased by 1% to 26%. d. June & July 2024 Arrivalist Report: Charlotte reported that in June and July 46.6% of visitors were day-trippers and 53.4% were overnights. The volume of in visitation in June was down 7% compared to June 2023, and it was down 8.3% in July compared to July 2023. The top five origin markets they came from were 1. Florida, 2. Georgia, 3. New York, and 4. New Jersey. Trip volume from markets were 1. Fort Lauderdale, 2. Orlando, 3. West Palm Beach, and 4. New York. The majority of Tourist Development Council Meeting ◊ October 30, 2024 Page 3 of 3 visitors flying here come through Palm Beach International Airport, with Fort Lauderdale airport in second. The number one place that was visited was Tradition Square, two was Downtown Fort Pierce, three was Jetty Park. e. Earned Media: Katherine Cordero reported year to date, St. Lucie has over $248,000.00 in earned media value, with over 47 million results/clicks. She reported the county’s earned media program experienced a service gap starting in mid- September, however a new subscription with a public relation software, Muck Rack, has been acquired and she will be working with them to retroactively collect earned media data to present a comprehensive report of the 23/24 fiscal year earned media at the next TDC meeting. 8. Regular Agenda a. New Website Launch The staff presented the new Visit St. Lucie website to the council. b. 2025 Marketing & Public Relations Plan Outline The staff presented an outline of the marketing and public relations plan for the new fiscal year. c. Staff Updates Katherine reported that the Industry FAM was a success, showed some pictures from both days, and there are plans to make this annual for industry leaders. Charlotte reported that the Treasure Coast International Airport received its part- 139 certification, meaning it can now accommodate commercial airlines. There is still some work to be done to get a commercial airline at the airport, but renovations are being planned and will be underway soon. Tayler reported the webcams remained active and online during Hurricane Milton resulting in 23,000 users in 2.5 days checking on the area. 9. Other Business Rick Hatcher announced that Vinny Ball has more teams registered than ever before and are currently working to get more for the 38th year. They were on a call with FIFA World Cup and Copa about possibly having events in St. Lucie to get international exposure. Lauren DeAcetis announced the Mets went to the MLCS and are expected to have a good Spring Training. Spring Training schedules have been released with 16 home games including with the Red Sox and Yankees, with single game tickets going on sale on November 12th. 10. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 2:20 PM.