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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Lodging Tax Advisory Committee - 01/25/2012 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee January 25, 2012 Start Time 4:00 pm Centennial North & South Conference Rooms Committee Members Present: Jamie Perry Chair, Barbara Smith, Andrew Hutchinson, David Kwok, Beth Sylves, John Casey Others present: Kurt Hanson, Julie Pulliam, Bob Nachlinger; Ben Wolters Guest: Katherine Kertzman (SSVS), Meilee Anderson (SSVS), Scott Brown Best Western by the Green Chair Perry called the meeting to order at 4 pm and introductions were made. Welcome from Kurt Hanson Barbara Smith term is up and she has agreed to serving for another 3 year term. With Aaron Watne has moved on and is now gone we will need to find another board member. We will discuss this later in the agenda. Introduction of Jamie Perry as the new Chair of the Economic & Community Development Committee (ECDC) was made. Perry hopes her work on both the ECDC and Lodging Tax Committee will work together. Jamie also sits on Operations Committee, which gives her the opportunity to chair of the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. Perry stated she is excited to work with the Lodging Tax Committee and do some great things together this year. There are great people seating at the table and hopefully we can form this committee into something that can do great things for tourism, the city and the hoteliers. The committee has dedicated monies which gives it strength. With assigned money we can look for what we can do to get the best bang for our buck. Terms of new Lodging Tax Committee members are appointed by the Council. Perry remarked; this is a new year and a new start for the committee, it would be interesting to have a vision before we fill the empty position, then we can maybe have the new member fill that part of the vision of what we are looking to be in the future and what we would like to get done not just someone to spend time on the committee. Katherin Kertzman stated the RCW does require 1/2 of the committee be filled by the Hoteliers. Kurt Hanson confirmed we will need to have the new position filled by hoteliers. Kurt Hanson presented the committee the name of Blane Webber, General Manager of TownePlace Suites. Aaron Watne submitted Blane's name to the committee prior to him leaving. Blane would like to be considered for the empty position left by Aaron Watne (Letter of interest is attached). Mailee Anderson from Seattle Southside said he would have fresh ideas and be a good fit for the committee. Hanson would like to get some additional information to give a little more background to Council if Blane were to be appointed to this committee. Andrew Hutchinson met Blane today for the first time and commented he is new to Kent and has been at the Marriott Property in Downtown Seattle. Blane has only been the GM here in Kent for about 3 months. Jamie commented she would like to meet him and have lunch. Kurt will arrange and keep the committee up to date with how we will proceed. Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of January 25, 2012 Page: 2 Hoteliers talk about their properties for 2011 Andrew Hutchinson - Best Western by the Green I have been the GM for the past 5 years and a few years on the committee. The last 3 years we have seen a steady growth and this year is continuing the same. We are seeing more business from ShoWare not that it is giant, but we are seeing growth here and there. We have adopted the Best Western plus descriptor a step up from a Best Western. We think the cruise ship season might be a little bit better this year because of Disney. Disney is now starting to cruise out of Seattle instead of Vancouver. Kertzman confirmed all the Canadian cruises went to Seattle. Whenever there are cruise ships there are always passengers that come into town the night before. So if we see more cruise ships we see more people. Another exciting thing about Disney cruising out of here is we have access to the Disney mother lode of marketing. Seattle is on there and the demographics are so good for the area hotels for the value ads that families are looking for stated Mailee Anderson. Hutchinson commented; if we continue to draw more out of town teams for soft ball that really works well and helps our stays. We do well with the golf course close by. Scott Brown - Best Western Kent's a great place to base from you can go north; south it can be marketed as your destination. Hanson joined in that is what he would like to touch on Kent being a destination. David Kwok - Hampton Inn We opened about a year and a half ago mostly corporate base. I have seen about 2 or 3 years of down scaled. There are a lot of projects sitting on the side lines that are going to start as soon as the economy shows an upturn. From the revenue we had a slight growth of 3 to 5 % with that said I think 2013 might be a little brighter. If the development picks up the supply will change the dynamic. Hanson asked you mean the bump in hotel construction in the region will flat line the 3-5 % increase and you won't see a bump. Kwok stated there are a lot of projects sitting waiting as soon as it turns it maybe a little bit more occupancy change. Every new business takes 3 years to stabilize. Andrew added he is excited about the City's Spotlight Series and the new Earthwork trail that works to draw people to Kent for an attraction. Anything that is done to market these events to get people to come in from outside the area is very positive. New Chairs Background Jamie Perry gave her background to the committee and the hoteliers for their information she has a background in political science and public policy, as well as a minor in Economics and JD from Oregon, she works currently at the RJC in Kent practicing Family Law. My primary interest in Economic Development is my economics background. So she has interest in hearing how your business function and how this committee can better serve you. Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of January 25, 2012 Page: 3 Recap 2011 Budget Nachlinger explained; we went into the 2011 budget anticipating a flat growth and were pleasantly surprised to see about a 15 % growth in our revenues. The expenditures did not change during the year $120,000 for Seattle Southside and $5,000 for tourism generating type activities, $18,500 for Chambers for their efforts in tourism development. We anticipate ending the year increasing the fund balance by about $38,500. 6 months ago when we were developing the budget we did not expect it to be that good so you can see the ending fund balance we estimated is about $21,000 higher than the council approved as a budget for a beginning balance everything being equal and we meet the revenue targets and the expenditures run as we plan we will actually be about $110,000 in available funds by the end of 2012. Hanson stated in hind sight I would like to have Tom Brubaker talk about the fund balance. There is lot of ways to use the fund balance. Broad category is tourism and promotion that is the concept. Tom has done some research. A recent example is the ShoWare Marquee and that met the criteria, and meets the test of tourism and promotion. We were able to utilize the funds, which are one example of how we can use the fund balance. It has really helped the building with tourism and promotion for the activities within. Hanson asked if there are any questions for Bob on the budget. John Casey had a question for Bob transfers out for ShoWare marquee is shown for $212,000 off on the side and not showing the deduction from the expenditures in 2011 year to date? Bob Nachlinger responded that was a 2010 expense, it was a reduction in the 2010 actual fund equity reduction line. Total $355,000 in expenditures was shown for 2010. Marquee was spent in 2010 and it is shown there. Kurt Hanson explained the construction and installation was in 2011 expenditures was 2010. New opportunities for 2012 - Seattle Southside report Hanson started out the conversation stating he would like to have an open discussion with the group as this is the first meeting of the year. Katherine Kertzman from Seattle Southside is in attendance and can talk about what we have done to date and where we are with the report containing a good source of information looking at the opportunities going forward. Katherin handed out from the Department of Revenue the revenue for Kent annually for the past 10-12 years. There is a nice growth trend. There is a potential for a 5% or so increase for it to be well over $200,000. We ended the year at $180,000 but it has been as high as $196,000 in 2008. First report is Dean Runyan Report (attached) an Economic & Market research firm that the Department of Commerce and Washington State has had under contract for more than a decade. Travel spending is up 8.8% for Seattle Southside that is a nice increase. Tax receipts up 7.4 /o, over 5000 jobs invol ved in tourism and travel in Seattle Southside, only 4.5 % come from day trips the rest of it comes from overnight stays. 3/4 of the overnight stays are in Hotel. If you have any questions please give Katherin a call. Over the past several years Seattle Southside Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of January 25, 2012 Page: 4 has focused on performance measurements. That gives them the ability to manage their resources for sales and marketing and be able to get the best bang for their buck. Seattle Southside is in the process of becoming accredited by Destination Marketing Association International and adopting their standards. As a result of tracking and the Dean Runyan report Seattle Southside can say how much visitor spending there is. Seattle Southside for the $1.4 million dollar budget is generating plus $10 million dollars in visitor spending. Total spending divided by the program budget of $1.4 million. For every $1.00 Seattle Southside spends on marketing the ROI is $7.39 in visitor spending. Seattle Southside is not able to track the people that go to the website or receive the travel planner and make their own reservations. 2013 Seattle Southside will be looking at a conversion study to help with that. They have 30 thousand people on annual that ask for vacation planners and ask questions. Those will be surveyed to get a real conversion study completed. Hanson questioned; is it possible to do a study on a member level, say City of Kent. Kertzman stated we have some information but not complete enough to do a compressive look at this point city by city. Kent sends about 10 % of the Seattle Southside budget. 25% of visitor spending happens in Kent. The visitor ratio is a lot higher for Kent than some of the other Seattle Southside cities. Perry asked if there is a way to get which ones are coming from Kent. Katherine agreed to work on those numbers. Hot off the press is the new tourist map (attached). More available if wanted. Katherine gave an open invitation to register to attend Seattle Southside's Tourism Networking meeting this is the loth anniversary. KDP will be there as well as Kurt Hanson and Ben Wolters will be attending. 2012 opportunities Hanson started by asking how we dial in the hoteliers in and better captures heads in beds. Andrew mentioned a small bump for his hotel could be contributed to ShoWare Center. Can we talk about that? Is there a why? The events, the Australian horse event they saw the biggest bump. Beth Sylves commented it was a multiple day event so people coming were staying; it was a 3 day event and the only one in the region. Hutchinson said that is the kind of event that hoteliers would like to see more of. Thunderbirds playing has created some stays. Nachlinger asked if the Ice show is drawing any stays. Sylves said some but not a lot working on advertising more. Hanson asked, what are some ideas for new opportunities in 2012? Barb added wanting to cross promote through Kent's businesses, and looking for help from Seattle Southside to help teach her how to do that. Smith feels the downtown businesses need assistant in how to get customers into Kent and to be the promoters. The businesses in downtown don't really see the need for cross promoting each other Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of January 25, 2012 Page: 5 or other events that come to town. We need to educate our locals. Many people in the community don't even know ShoWare is here. Meilee for Seattle Southside is arranging a van tour of Kent for many different hotel front desk folks to come to Kent and eat their way through Kent. This will help them be aware of what Kent has to offer so they will be better able to promote the Kent businesses. In 2011 Seattle Southside did 4 van tours and it was all designed for the front line hotel staff to come together so when they are on the phone they can answer what is in different areas and be able to answer with excitement. This really helps cross promotion with hotels in other cities as well as hotel front staff being able to promote another cities not just their own. David Kwok - Hampton Inn 2 things, would like this committee it have a marketing plan put together and approved at the same time the budget is approved, as well as to promoting the City as a whole. Kent has Showare, Kent Station, baseball fields. Kent has a lot of things more that a lot of other cities. We can take advantage of certain events certainly pull in the leisure market traveler, but at the same time when I say promote the city we know there is a place to play and shop here, but there is also a business community, leisure and corporate need to balance out. Another thing is whatever we bring in, those sales tax dollars should stay here. Tourism turns over 7 times in a community, so turn that dollar in the Kent community. We need to not only market to locals, they do spend dollars but from this committee's stand point they don't put heads in bed. In the long term how do we pull people in from a distance so they will need to stay here. How should we market what Kent has. That is what I think we need to focus and market. Kurt Hanson- Economic Development Manager Hanson started the conversation stating without a huge budget some of the thing to talk about this year is adopting a strong market plan that the committee can reflect and rely on throughout the year. Some of the opportunities we have to showcase are ShoWare center, the Parks and softball events. Is it possible to co-promote and offer package deals with our hotels? That is something this group can do without going outside of this committee. Make sure we are taking advantage of Parks program to talk about events that are pulling in people from outside. Doing a better job of marketing these deals and having a deal on the hotel website but is also promoted through the city's website and ShoWare's website. Looking back at 2011, this committee has been doing small promoting, applying $1000 or so toward some of the events, this really helps. Next we have to follow up on the linking of the package deals with the hotels and the program. Do we have comments from the committee? David interjected he feels it is great to fund certain events, but we need to have a report or matrix after it has been completed. How many stays did we get? What is the return? If it is not giving a return (heads in beds) it is not a good return on our investment and maybe we don't support it again. Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of January 25, 2012 Page: 6 Jamie commented where can we sponsor events that get people in beds? Hotels seem to have a weekday and a weekend. Doing the events that get the people in the weekend is important. Let's look at what is sustainable that is going to keep people coming back. The corporations per David fill those beds on a week day basis. Marketing the city as a whole should also be a part of this committee's vision for what we want to have in the future. What is Kent? Why do people come here? What are we? What do we want to be? Who is Kent? Why do people want to come here? Perry thinks we have to answer those questions. The one-time events will give us a short return on investment that we can easily push, but we also have to look at long term strategies. What are we getting for our money that is going to continuity invest in the community and getting people to Kent? Marketing for the overall city is something that Perry hopes can be accomplished in this committee as well. Smith asked are we looking at a brand. Perry referred to Councils Strategies Goals that are really place making, building on a vision of being a community that is the hub of South King County. How do you get that to be the case, to where we do not have to do the individual events to get people to come here because there is a sustainable cliental coming in for a purpose, because we have something that no one else has and they want to come here? Perry sees us doing both. Perry asked if there had ever been a Lodging Tax Retreat, a vision or goal setting meeting. The conclusion was made no Lodging Tax Committee has ever held a Retreat. Katherin Kertzman stated 2009 Seattle Southside did stake holder's interviews brand research and does have a 3 year marketing plan. Kent Hotels and business participated in the development of the brand. Seattle Southside tag line is; The Pacific Northwest every adventure needs a home base make Seattle Southside yours. Wolters stated Seattle Southside has done a tremendous job creating brand recognition and it has been a long road that requires consistence effort. The question for Kent that relates to involving recognitions; a lot of what we have put or nose to the grind stone to accomplish is not recognized or acknowledge in the region, some say it is better recognized outside of the region than within our region. The community recognition is; we have more to offer and a new story to tell that did not exist 8 years ago. I am hearing a desire to figure out a way to figure out a better way of telling that story and send the benefits back to the community. What Economic Development is hearing from the businesses is the negative stereotypes are effecting their recruitment. People really don't know what we have to offer in Kent. Once they get here they see what we have to offer and retention is not a problem. Seattle Southside has served Kent well over the last years, especially what was here before. The question now; is the investment in Seattle Southside where we want to continue to make the overwhelming investment of this source of funds or because of all the changes that have happened to Kent do we look at and explore all alternatives? Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of January 25, 2012 Page: 7 Meilee Anderson from Seattle Southside elaborated on all the sales contacts she has worked on trying to get events to Kent and ShoWare Center. She shares leads, data bases when she gets back from different events. This information is available to all the hotels. Perry stated she sees there has never really been a goal setting meeting for this committee. Perry would like the next meeting to be that; to look at, what are we doing? What are our legal requirements? What are our goals? How do we get there? Then from there what is the best allocation of the money to get what we want? Without having those clear expectations we are just spinning our wheels. Perry would like to do some planning and goal setting and see where the Committee wants to take this. There is a lot of energy and it would be a good idea to channel that into a plan. Perry asked committee how often they would like to meet. Smith would like to meet on a more regular basis until we get a marketing plan or some plan together on how we want to move forward, then we can be more productive in our quarterly meetings, otherwise we are always playing catch up. David Kwok like to have the Committee take a step back and look at what we have, what do we want to do, and how we want to get there. Perry asked if the Committee would you be opposed to meeting more often, Kwok said no, just not Thursday Hanson asked for retreat dates from Committee. Let's pick a weekday. Perry requested end of February. Pulliam will help set up and notify the Committee the retreat date. Smith asked if there is any homework. Perry will work with Pulliam to send out an agenda to the committee for the retreat ahead of time. Approval of minutes - Smith moved to approve the minutes of the October 13, 2011 meeting, Casey seconded, Motion passes. 2012 budget was approved in October of 2012 so the item has been tabled. Barbara Smith - KDP Shared what KDP is doing. They have created a new logo and explained what it stands for. The building represents business the other building is to show how important it is to have residential in our downtown. The trees stand for Kent (we) thinking of ourselves as being green. The other item can be the Sounder or a bus just the fact that transportation is available all kinds, in and out, and through Kent. People aren't in it because we are selling the experience of Kent. We want the people to put themselves there. A new website is up Kentdowntownwa.com. Next Meeting Date - Retreat - February 28, 2012, 2-5 pm at Hampton Inn. Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of January 25, 2012 Page: 8 Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned by Chair Jamie Perry at 5:30 p.m. Julie Pulliam, Lodging Tax Secretary