Visit Jacksonville President’s Report 2014-2015

Tourist Development Council Meeting August 2014

Financial Update

•Year to Date Financials through June 2014

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2013-2014 STR Report Highlights• Each month (March –June) have had the highest amounts of Room Revenue since Smith

Travel began tracking Jacksonville/Duval County in 2004

• May Hotel Revenue was over $32 million, that’s only a million less than revenue in February 2005 when we hosted the Super Bowl!

• Total Revenue is up $17,850,129 Year to Date and demand is up 168,154 room nights

• Overall, every month in 2014, Occupancy, Average Daily Rate and RevPar has been up.

• YTD (1st two Qtrs) Group Average Daily Rate (ADR) up to $79.23 (up $.56), Group Occupancy up 6.1%, Group RevPar is up 6.8% YTD

• Transient occupancy is up 4.8% YTD, Transient ADR is $4.68 and Transient Revenue per available room (RevPAR) is up 11.3%.

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October

November

December

January

Febru

aryMarc

hApril

May juneJuly

August

Septem

ber48.0

53.0

58.0

63.0

68.0

73.0

2011-20122012-20132013-2014

30.00

35.00

40.00

45.00

50.00

55.00

60.00

2011-20122012-20132013-2014

Hotel Occupancy

Hotel RevPAR

Organization HighlightsMarketing:

• Brand New website launched in June• Website visitation is up 42%, 62% increase in traffic from Florida• Averaging 86,000 visits a month, our highest numbers in history• Improved social media fan engagement • Improved video product and photo galleries• Ran 32 Radio/Online Promotions

Sales:• Definite Room nights booking 19.2% over budget• Sales Leads are 61% over Budget

Group Bookings:

• Association for Student Conduct Administration 2017,2018 & 2019 - 2,500 rooms nights per year

• Global Unites Fellowship 2015 – 4,055 room nights• Special Forces Assn. 2016 – 4,506

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• Strategic Plan• Business Plan• 2014-2015 Budget

2014-2015 Planning Sequence

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Desired Outcomes:

• Greater Economic Prosperity for Jacksonville

• Recognition of Jacksonville as a premier visitor destination

• Greater Community Pride, Energy and Engagement

• Aspirational Plan Development

• Convention Center Development

2014-2015 Strategic Plan

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Outcome: Economic Prosperity:

• Boost room nights production in convention, meeting, sport and leisure tourism markets

• Redirect sales efforts to more focused industry markets: Group Leisure, Social, Military, Education, Religious and Fraternal

• Grow the value proposition for Visit Jacksonville Partners to better serve Jacksonville stakeholders.

Desired Outcome Strategies

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Outcome: Recognition of Jacksonville as a premier visitor destination:

• Develop a unified Destination Brand Essence and Brand Presentation

• Increase market reach and expansion• Enhance the Jacksonville visitor’s experience • Grow awareness of the city’s large signature events and help

market these events individually.• Grow the multicultural marketing and sales efforts within the

community i.e. African-American, Hispanic, etc.• Increase national earned media exposure for Jacksonville• Expand Marketing/Sales Resources• Advance the latest technology in order to keep Visit Jacksonville

efficient and competitive in both sales and marketing• Create greater awareness of the mission of Visit Jacksonville and

the value of the visitor industry within the local community.• New collaboration with the Jacksonville Sports Council

Desired Outcome Strategies

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Outcome: Greater Community Pride, Energy and Engagement :

• Enhance the Jacksonville visitor’s experience • Continue exploring customer perspective to guide messaging and deliverables• Develop and maintain a staff dedicated to carrying out the vision and mission of Visit

Jacksonville• Maintain financial integrity of the organization• Explore opportunities for alternative or additional funding for selling, marketing and

promoting Destination Jacksonville• Purposefully connect Visit Jacksonville with relevant community, trade and business

organizations.• Maintain an organization with operational integrity• Build Board Influence, Effectiveness and Engagement• Create a higher level of Tourism Development Council Engagement• Continue working towards a collaborative Community Visioning/Community Alignment

Process

Desired Outcome Strategies

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Outcome: Aspirational Plan Progress:

• Continue to recruit and engage the right community leaders

• Implement the desired five-year outcomes and benchmarks

Objective: Convention Center Development

• Create the message related to the prioritization of the convention center as related to all other Jacksonville infrastructure initiatives

• Create the plan for community leadership engagement and enlightenment

Desired Outcome Strategies

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2014-2015 Business Plan

2014-2015 Budget

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•Requesting 10% of the annual bed tax collections, totaling $555,484 for 2014-2015

•These funds will be used to strengthen and greatly increase our advertising reach

•All of these funds are used to grow brand essence and destination awareness to key markets including:• Meeting Professionals Nationally• Southeast• Florida • I-95 Corridor (SC, NC, VA, NY)

Marketing Initiative Funds Request

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•Continued focus to digital marketing which is more measureable and has been most successful in recent years

•Grow focus on driving traffic to our website and pushing business to our local hotels and attractions

•Selected print publications which provide long-term shelf life (annual guides) and strong circulation numbers

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