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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-09-22 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, September 22, 2011 — 8:00 a.m. Wallis Building Grapevine, Texas AGENDA I. CALL TO ORDER II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES III. INTRODUCTION OF STAFF IV. BOARD MEMBER INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS V. OLD BUSINESS (iv A. CV B HEADQUARTERS UPDATE B. 2011 — 2012 MEETING SCHEDULE C. GRAPEFEST RECAP VI. NEW BUSINESS A. BUDGET REPORT B. TTIA RESEARCH PROPOSAL VII. SALES & MARKETING REPORT VIII. HOTELS /ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES IX. LIAISON UPDATES A. HERITAGE FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES B. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ACTIVITIES X. ADJOURNMENT State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. at the Wallis Building, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Paul Slechta Chairman Tom Cherry Board Member LuAnn Chapman Gatts Board Member John Imaizumi Board member Peggy Weaver Board Member Dan Weinberger Board Member Angela Mitcham Chamber Liaison Balla Wright Heritage Foundation Liaison Sharron Spencer Council Liaison Paul W. McCallum Executive Director George Kakos Assistant Executive Director Nikki Stinson Chair 2011 GrapeFest Absent: Dennis Roberts Board member Jennifer Hibbs Assistant City Manager CALL TO ORDER Chairman Slechta called the meeting to order. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the August 18, 2011 meeting was made by LuAnn Chapman Gatts and seconded by John Imaizumi. Motion carried. INTRODUCTION OF STAFF Mr. McCallum introduced Leigh Lyons, Communications Manager, to the board. BOARD MEMBER INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS • The Gaylord Texan is being recognized by the Dallas Business Journal as one of the "Best Places to Work". They are also being recognized by the Dallas Morning News. • The Ice! tent is up and the Dreamworks program will start in November. • One of the cast members of the new Charlie's Angels series grew up in Grapevine. • Ross, Dress for Less is a new anchor store at Grapevine Mills mall. It is scheduled to open in mid October. • Chairman Slechta encouraged the board to put a team in for The Classic Chili Cook- Off in November. Dan Weinberg will lead the group and Tom Cherry, LuAnn Chapman Gatts and Paul Slechta volunteered to assist. Board of Directors Meeting September 22, 2011 Page 2 of 5 OLD BUSINESS CVB Headquarters Update Mr. McCallum reported that after today the masonry should be 100% complete and all other areas are nearing completion. The contractors are working on some punch list items. We expect to take possession of the building in three to four weeks and look to move in around the end of October or first of November. We are looking at March 2nd for the grand opening. 2011 — 2012 Meeting Schedule Mr. Slechta asked if there were any questions or concerns regarding the meeting schedule for fiscal year 2012 as presented. There were none and the schedule was approved as presented. GrapeFest Recap Nikki Stinson, chair of the 2011 GrapeFest, thanked the board for allowing her the opportunity to serve as chair. She reported that attendance was 243,180 a nine percent decrease from last year due to the rain and road construction. The combined attendance for Main Street Days and GrapeFest was 404,000 and this was the fist time to break 400,000. The Golf Tournament had 74 players and the Italian Car Festival had 80 vehicles and 20 motorcycles. The Vintners' Auction raised over $40,000 and 100 people enjoyed the Champaign Brunch. The Mayor's GrapeStomp had 13 teams participate and the cork shoot had over 20 participants with the longest shoot being 89' 4'. Over 7,000 participated in People's Choice with 119 wines from 33 wineries. The Grapevine AMBUCS sold 2,000 corn dogs, the Joey Wilkins Foundation sold 1,435 turkey legs and the Elks Lodge sold 3,500 ears of corn. Several positive comments have been received from merchants and civic organizations. NEW BUSINESS Budget Report Eloise Koehn reported that staff began work in April on the FY 12 budget. Projected revenues are $18.2 million with hotel tax revenue projected at 11.4 million, facility revenue at 1.1 million, train at 1.5 million and festival at 3.3. Revenues are back to the projections of FY 09. Expenses for FY 12 included 9.3 million for sales, marketing, promotions and administration and 1.5 for convention tourism incentives. Additionally festival expenses are projected at 3 million, train at 1.4 and facilities also at 1.4. The staff has done a wonderful job of"doing more with less" over the last few years. Board of Directors Meeting September 22, 2011 Page 3 of 5 NEW BUSINESS cont. TTIA Research Proposal Mr. McCallum reported that the Texas Travel Industry Association (TTIA) represents both the private and public sectors of the tourism industry. Their major roles include being an advocate for the tourism industry and research. Their monies are used for print, TV, online and digital advertising of the brand of Texas and local bureaus can piggyback off that advertising. The state tourism division also allows local bureaus to have a presence at major trade shows. This last legislative session the state tourism division came dangerously close to losing their funding. TTIA is launching a major research project and looking for financial support. The research is expected to show the number of jobs that tourism creates, both white-collar and low-paying, how tourism impacts the banking, insurance and other industries, the return on investment of tourism dollars, and how at least part of the airline industry should be considered a part of tourism instead of transportation. Staff recommends that the Grapevine CVB should participate at the $10,000 level for funding of this research. LuAnn Chapman Gatts made a motion to fund the research at the $10,000 level, seconded by Tom Cherry. Motion carried. SALES & MARKETING REPORT Mr. Kakos reported that during the month of August the convention sales team produced 48 leads representing almost 50,000 potential room nights; 12 of the leads were for 2011 and 22 for 2012. Staff assisted with 20 definite bookings representing 6,056 room nights. Staff conducted 11 site inspections and hosted a hotel partner reception. Tourism sales produced 20 leads representing 1,321 room nights for 2011 and assisted with 14 definite bookings with 1,144 room nights and 960 attendees. Staff hosted five travel planners from Mexico in conjunction with American Airlines. The Visitor Information Center staff distributed 81.035 brochures and welcomed 4,055 guests to the Visitor Information Center. Destination Services provided information and registration assistance to six groups representing 9,353 delegates. The Grapevine shuttle carried 4,877 passengers and one rider with an airport layover spent $3,000 in Grapevine. The Convention Center booked 17 future groups representing 4,320 attendees and had $50,836 in total sales. The Palace Arts Center booked ten future groups representing 2,260 attendees and had $13,102 in total sales. The Concourse booked eight future groups representing 615 attendees and had $11,594 in total sales. The website had 179,498 unique visitors, a 26% increase over last year. There were 6,482,779 hits, a 39% increase over last year. The advertising investment included 17 convention group trade publication print insertions, two leisure group trade publication Board of Directors Meeting September 22, 2011 Page 4 of 5 SALES & MARKETING REPORT cont. insertions, ten online group advertising insertions and 61 consumer print insertions. TV and radio had 639 runs and online consumer advertising insertions were 70. Print publicity was $115,922; electronic publicity was $25,560; and online publicity was $2,325 for a total of$143,807. HOTELS / ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES Mr. Kakos reported: • Larry Daniels, General Manager of the Hyatt Regency DFW has left to assume a similar position in New Orleans at the former Wyndham Hotel. • Lance Marrin is the new General Manager of the Grand Hyatt. He was previously in California with Hyatt. • Grapevine Gold and Silver has opened at Daniels Place. • Fuzzy's Tacos has opened in South Grapevine at 121 and Glade • Designers Rack has opened at 151 N. Dooley; it is a high end resale shop. • Little Pete's has closed. • Grapevine was picked as one of Texas' Scenic Cities by the Scenic City Certification Program. • This week, Executive Director Paul W. McCallum received the Tall in Texas Award at the Summit Conference. This is the highest tourism award presented in the state. • Chesapeake Learning Center will host a grand opening today. This learning center teaches about gas drilling and is the only such facility in the country. It is located by Grapevine Mills. LIAISON UPDATES Heritage Foundation Activities Balla Wright reported that school tours started back this month and several have been scheduled. The festival store at GrapeFest was a great success and had over $20,000 in sales. Tuesday night six Preservation Advocacy awards were presented at the City Council meeting. Three of the awards went to businesses on Main Street and three went to residents. October 8 is the date for Fall Roundup at Nash Farm. Chamber of Commerce Activities Angela Mitcham reported that GrapeFest went well for the Chamber. The Chamber Golf Tournament will be held next Monday. Directors Meeting �r September 22, 2011 Page 5 of 5 LIAISON UPDATES cont. Chamber of Commerce Activities cont. The Chamber is starting a Twelve at Twelve Round Table. Their goal is to enlist Grapevine companies to discuss what can be done to make it easy to do business in Grapevine. The Chamber is also busy working on their budget. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the board, LuAnn Chapman Gatts made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Tom Cherry. Motion carried. ATTEST: DATE: