Hotel-Motel Tax Board Minutes 2019 August 22

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Hotel-Motel Tax Board Minutes 8/22/2019 Pg. 4 Google, Facebook, BasisDSP, Bing, Yahoo. Top referral cities were Chicago, South Bend, Indianapolis, Nashville, Granger. The Golden Romer with 110 total event days was rewrapped after the US Golf Senior Open to update the mobile visitor center. Ongoing work continues with Community Tourism Actions Plans for Downtown Mishawaka and Lakeville. Final presentations will be the third week of September. Work continues on the Community Tourism Action Plans developed last year with New Carlisle and North Liberty. Lauren Stout was hired last year to focus on travel media and promotion in new ways. Travel media visits included golf blogger Patrick Koenig June 28-July 2, SW Michigan travel blogger Jessica Springer July 13-14, WTHR Indy Chuck’s Big Adventures: Indiana Getaways July 17-18, Indy-based food influencer Mike Gillis July 25-26, editor of Indy’s Child magazine Nicole Sipe August 3, and blogger Stephanie Taleghani August 20-22. Stout was at the North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) Conference in June at Syracuse, NY, and will be going to TBEX conference for travel bloggers in September at Billings, MT. Similar to the Golden Roamer 100 events, the goal is to have 100 travel media events to promote the area. Sales have started for the 2020 Visitors’ Guide with 100 pages (the largest guide ever -- 16 pages more than in 2019 and vs. 24 pages in 2009.) A total of 80,000 will be printed and 30,000 map overrun will be delivered to hotel front desks. Sixteen pages are dedicated to the foodie scene as the area has evolved into a foodie destination. Century Center: Jeff Jarnecke reported on 2019 Q2 performance of $133,000 in the black with the strongest months of April and May ever within the history of the building. Because of the strong performance by SMG and to attract new General Manager candidates, the Civic Center Board of Managers at the meeting on July 10, 2019, elected to extend the contract with SMG for another five years. Jacob Hammon reported on 2019 January – July sales and room nights. The 2019 anticipated room nights is 14,563; 13,046 in 2020; and 6,863 In 2021. He recently traveled to Atlantic City to participate in an SMG Co-Op and attend the 2019 Esports Travel Summit presented by the North- Star Travel group. The number of contracts signed and returned decreased 9% from 209 in 2018 to 190 in 2019; however, new contracts issued increased 5% from 273 in 2018 to 288 in 2019. Actualized room nights increased 9% from 9,232 in 2018 to 10,026 in 2019. Estimated rent from new contracts decreased 3% from $207,575 in 2018 to $202,135 in 2019. The number of events increased 25% from 248 in 2018 to 311 in 2019. Site visits are up 4% from 283 in 2018 to 294 in 2019. Anthony commented that the number of 2019 room nights is almost 3 times the number of 2014 room nights and thanked staff. Hammon replied that the increase in room nights is attributed to the joint effort between the City of South Bend and SMG and also that there are more room inventory available to now go after larger events. Jarnecke reported that the 2020 budget anticipated revenue is $4,940,073 and expenses of $4,9987,715. In about three years the numbers will need to rely slightly on the City of South Bend as well as the Hotel-Motel Tax Board if expenses continue at the current pace. At some point critical mass will be reached and not enough events will be able to be produced throughout the year to get to a $6 million gross number. This is consistent with expansion discussion in the future which the Civic Center Board of Managers continues.