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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTDC Feb 2025 MinutesST. LUCIE COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday, February 12, 2025 ◊ 10:00 A.M. MINUTES Members present: Terissa Aronson, SLC Chamber of Commerce Gabriel Atkinson, Sailfish Brewing Company Ryan Collins, CasaGo/Oceanfront Inn Donna Qvarnstrom, Cobbs Landing Commissioner James Taylor, City of Fort Pierce Chair Cathy Townsend, St. Lucie County Members Absent: Lisa Cataline, Ocean Village Vacation Rentals Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan, City of Port St. Lucie Staff present: Katherine Barbieri, St. Lucie County Assistant Attorney Charlotte Bireley, St. Lucie County Tourism Katherine Cordero, St. Lucie County Tourism Tayler Hardison, St. Lucie County Tourism Also present: Yahn Bartelink, evok advertising Melissa Brooks, VISIT FLORIDA Josh Brown, Sinclair Broadcasting Travis Burton, Treasure Coast Vacation Rentals Craig Campbell, SLC Tax Collector Kevin Greene, Play Treasure Coast Sports Rick Hatcher, Play Treasure Coast Sports Stewart Hill, evok advertising Martine Lapointe, Courtyard Port St. Lucie Tradition Robin Moran, La Quinta Charlene Robles, Homewood Suites PSL Ryan Strickland, Play Treasure Coast Sports Larry Winter, Fort Pierce Vacation Rentals 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Cathy Townsend called the meeting to order at 10:03 AM. 2. ROLL CALL Katherine Cordero called roll. 3. SELF-INTRODUCTIONS Tourist Development Council Meeting ◊ February 12, 2025 Page 2 of 4 4. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comment. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ryan Collins made a motion to approve the minutes from October 30, 2024. Donna Qvarnstrom seconded. Motion passed. 6. Reports from Municipalities Commissioner James Taylor reported there will be a new tiki taxi service in Fort Pierce servicing the City Marina and Harbortown Marina opening soon. He stated there will be an update on the Western Peninsula Charrette project at the city commission meeting in April including the final conceptional designs. He also reported the City of Fort Pierce City Manager interviews will be held February 18th and 19th with the goal of having a new city manager in place February 19th. Charlotte Bireley reported there has been more progress at the City of Port St. Lucie’s Port District including the opening of all the historical houses. 7. Reports from Tourism Staff a. Financial Report: Charlotte Bireley reported October TDT collection was $461,945, an 45.3% increase compared to October 2023. She associated this increase with the influx of recovery teams, evacuees, and displaced residents due to Hurricane Milton. November 2024 collections were $525,925, a 25.8% increase compared to November 2023, and she associated this increase with some recovery teams, but mainly displaced residents through FEMA vouchers. Year-to-date, the TDT collections are up 34.25% compared to 2023. She also reported in October 75% of the TDT collected came from commercial properties and 25% from private vacation rentals, and the same in November. She also explained the profit and loss reports to the new council members. b. Hotel Performance Report: Charlotte Bireley reported that October occupancy was up 13.4%, ADR up 6.4%, and RevPar was up just over 20%. November occupancy was up 16.7%, and ADR was up 7.2%, and RevPar was up just over 25%. Source: STR, LLC. c. Website, Social Media, and Email Marketing Report: Tayler Hardison reported 108,000 users visited the Visit St. Lucie website with 1.3 million events taking place, and 439,000 key events. She also reported there was a bit of a drop in monthly user count compared to December and January of last year. She credits this to getting a new digital ad agency, Evok Advetising, in October which meant all paid advertising was paused, thus paid search was down 50%. The top cities include Orlando and Miami and the top visited pages are the webcams. Tayler also reported the social media report shows lower numbers also due to the fact paid Tourist Development Council Meeting ◊ February 12, 2025 Page 3 of 4 ads were paused as Visit St. Lucie switched to Evok and paid ads were expected to restart in February. Reels continue to perform the highest and social media still has over 16 million in reach. Tayler reported the average open rate is currently 28%, an increase of 4%, with a click rate of 1%. Six visitor emails and one industry email were sent during December and January. d. Fiscal Year 2024 Arrivalist Report: Charlotte reported that in fiscal year 2024, 16.2% of visitors came from Miami and Fort Lauderdale and stayed an average of 1.6 nights, 9.6% of visitors came from New York and stayed an average of 3 nights, 8.2% came from the Orlando/Daytona/Melbourne area and stayed an average of 2 nights, 6.7% came from West Palm and stayed an average of 2 nights, 5.9% Tampa/St. Petersburg and stayed for an average of 2 nights, 3% came from Atlanta and stayed an average of 2.5 nights. 2.9% came from Philadelphia and stayed an average of 2.7 nights. The average nights in St. Lucie was up 3.3% versus the previous year. The number one place that was visited was Downtown Fort Pierce at 9.2%, two was Tradition Square with 5.9%, three was Ocean Village at 4.9%, four was Fort Pierce City Marina at 4.3%, five was Clover Park at 4%, and six was Jetty Park at 3.8%. e. Earned Media: Katherine Cordero reported that in October Visit St. Lucie secured a subscription to Muck Rack, a leading PR analytics platform, to retroactively compile earned media data from October 1, 2023, through September 2024 to collect a comprehensive report for the 2023/2024 fiscal year. With the enhanced capabilities provided by Muck Rack, it was reported that St. Lucie achieved over $3 million in earned media value and garnered more than 312 million impressions—an increase of over 300% compared to the 2022/2023 fiscal year. f. Chair Townsend invited Rick Hatcher from Play Treasure Coast Sports to share updates from their division. Rick Hatcher reported PGA Golf Club will be holding the PGA Championships Club Pros at the end of April. He also reported they have been getting a strong uptick with FIFA soccer and Sandpiper Bay with four currently pitches out and the biggest club being Munich. g. Chair Townsend invited the council to share any updates, and asked Donna Qvarnstrom to share any updates on Little Jim. She reported their current lease is up on February 28, and after a denial of a year extension, the City of Fort Pierce came up with a month-to-month lease. She encouraged the support of anyone who would like to attend the City of Fort Pierce Commission meeting to support Little Jim. Gabriel Atkinson announced Sailfish Brewing Company received it’s liquor license. Craig Campbell from the St. Lucie County Tax Collector’s Office reported the last few months of collections were great, and January 2025 was the highest January on record. Larry Winters from Fort Pierce Vacation Rentals reported Key Data has projected St. Lucie to have a 4% increase in tourism performance this year. 8. Regular Agenda a. New Digital Agency Intro & Media Strategy Plan Tourist Development Council Meeting ◊ February 12, 2025 Page 4 of 4 Stewart Hill, Evok Advertising Vice President of Content Delivery and Yahn Bartelink, Evok Advertising Account Manager, introduced Evok Advertising to the council and discussed the media strategy plan for Visit St. Lucie’s current fiscal year. b. VISIT FLORIDA Melissa Brooks, Regional Partnership Manager for Central East Florida of VISIT FLORIDA presented a Florida Tourism Update to the council. c. Proposed Change to County Ordinance 03-12, 33% of the 5th Cent Charlotte Birely presented a memorandum to propose change to county ordinance 03-12, 33% of the 5th cent. Terissa Aronson made a motion to recommend the St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners to consider supporting the adoption of a new ordinance with the new proposed wording for the use of funds from the 33% of the fifth cent tourist development tax. Gabriel Atkinson seconded. The motion passed unanimously. d. Proposed Mobile Visitors Center Charlotte Bireley presented the proposal of a mobile visitors center to the council. Chair Townsend increased the proposed budget for the mobile visitors center to $150,000. Terissa Aronson made a motion to approve the purchase of a Ford Sprinter Van and customization services to create a Mobile Visitors Center with a budget of $150,000. Donna Qvarnstrom seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. e. Staff Updates Tayler reported the 2025 Visit St. Lucie Travel Guide has been released and encouraged any businesses that would like to have them to reach out to the staff to schedule a delivery. 9. Other Business Rick Hatcher announced the Spring Training Grapefruit League pocket schedule has Visit St. Lucie’s ad with Mr. Met prominently placed. 10. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 11:49 AM.