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Home My WebLink AboutM082318 Tourism Coordinating Council – Jefferson County Minutes of the Meeting of the Coordinating Council August 23, 2018 (DRAFT) The August 23, 2018 meeting of the Tourism Coordinating Council (TCC) for Jefferson County, was called to order at 10:06 am by TCC Chair Roney, noting a quorum was present. • Voting Members present were: Bill Roney, Marsha Massey, Aaron Terada, Joy Baisch, Debbie Wardrop, and Cleone Telling • Partners Present: Christina Pivarnik, Arlene Alan, Debbie Reid • TCC Marketing Coordinator present: Steve Shively CALL TO ORDER Minutes from previous meetings were reviewed, and a vote to approve TCC minutes from the meetings conducted on June 12, 2018 were moved by Joy Baisch and seconded by Cleone Telling. Approval for motion was unanimous. MINUTES REVIEWED Steve reviewed the TCC 2018 June and July financials with TCC. Noting that both month’s Hotel/Motel Lodging Tax results exceeded budgeted amounts. (June by 17.0%, July by 19.9%), bringing the YTD for 2018 10.0% ahead of targeted YTD budget projections. The Jefferson County Lodging sector is currently preforming stronger than other County sales tax generating sectors which are tracking 2.84% above YTD expectations. Approval of the July TCC Financial report was moved by moved by Debbie Wardrop and seconded by Joy Baisch. Approval for action was unanimous. TCC discussed that the March LTAC 2018 Supplementals - which were awarded in May - still haven’t been received. Impacting tourism marketing operations and administration. OPTC Update: Marsha Massey updated TCC on OPTC’s recent meeting held in Forks, highlighted by: • Excellent NPS and NFS briefings regarding busy summer with o Hurricane Ridge and Hoh entrance station gates both filling to capacity by 11AM on some days this season. o Lake Crescent road work, focusing on guardrail work is underway. Hoh road will close after Labor Day for 30-days of repair. o Not-to-be missed is the NPS astronomy Ranger interpretive program. o Mountain Goat translocation will take place Sept. 10 – 21. • Fall OPTC marketing campaign is underway. Focus of digital marketing to TX, AZ and CA thanks to support from a Port of Seattle grant, focusing on shoulder-season fly-in markets. • OPTC website continues final review work with vendor JayRay and website subcommittee, including TCC representation from: Steve, Bill, Marsha and Christina. Early September is the updated target launch. Marsha emphasized the importance of cross-linking with back links to www.OlympicPeninsula.org. • GeoTour rev. 2 is coming. Mary is working on revetting and refreshing all existing caches with an October 20 kick-off through GroundSpeak of an additional ~ 30 secondary cache. • November 1-2 Olympic Peninsula Tourism Summit will focus on topic of Sustainable Destinations. Destination Next will be joined by Jonathan Tourtellot, Founding Director National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations. Stay tuned for advance survey and details. Steve and Bill shared rational behind TCC’s proposed 2019 Jefferson County LTAC Funding Application. TCC FINANCIALS REVIEWED OPTC UPDATE NEW BUSINESS TCC reviewed the DRAFT application, provided insights and recommended edits, complementing LTAC on the revised application format. TCC affirmed submittal of LTAC application with discussed edits. Steve briefed TCC on various summer 2018 marketing highlights. Including: • Successful Cruise passenger guide “Homeport Seattle” Port Townsend Getaway and WA State’s official state visitors guide print ads. • Work – with enormous thanks to Marsha and OPVB - on Marion Wink’s Newsday FAM tour • Review of strategic Fall TCC campaigns with SeattleRefined.com featuring: o Display campaign September 15 - October 31 o SeattleRefined.com - Eat & Drink Section Sponsored Content o Programmatic Display: October 1 – 31, supporting two commissioned video’s on topics o A) Fall (and winter) Fun o B) + Relax & Relish the Bounty of the Season • Updates to Marsha’s Tourism Summit with Steve’s work on Sustainable Tourism Initiative and planning with Jonathan Tourtellot’s initial FAM visit: o Week of October 28 – November 3 FAM o Stakeholders meet and assessment o Wed. 10/31 OCL “Lunch & Learn” + Reception o Thur. 11/1 – OPTC “Summit” o Fri. 11/2 – OPTC “Summit” Area Updates: Bill invited all TCC participants to realize our role as collectors and reports of Area “Community Content Connections” noting request to pre-submit at least 1 TCC Community Content item they are reporting on Port Ludlow – Debbie shared news regarding the following items of interest: o Movie with Wall e – being shown on a single scree as the dual boat-in screen will not be used this year. The fun starts Sunday August 25 o Still lots of boating Rendezvouses and golf tourney’s o Crab packages being booked. o Apple and Cider Fest – Apple package o Wine dinners with Sparkman being planned for October o Concluding season of Wed Farm Dinners at end of Sept., noting that Wednesday’s have become more popular than Thurs. o Enjoying good staffing this summer thanks in a large part to shift with FT with benefits. Port Townsend & WTA– Christina reported plenty regarding her role with WTA communications. o Involvement in a big tri-state press conf. with ~200 media reps. on subject of summer of wildfires. Exceeding 2017 fires throughout region. o Two state wide marketing committees being built: WTA & WTMA. Working hard to get plans in place to fulfill state-wide marketing plan o Port Townsend is heading into their last two concerts on dock. The annual summer series has been well attended NEW BUSINESS (Continued) TCC MARKETING COORDINATORS REPORT AREA UPDATES o Weekly festivals through summer. Gearing up for a busy fall with Wooden Boat Festival, Jefferson County Farm Tour, PT Film Festival and The Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Race! o Mainstreet is leading the Port Townsend winter marketing effort. o Port of Seattle – Ad at SeaTac in lieu transit program. Both campaigns will emphasis the “Escape to Port Townsend - Relax, Refresh, Renew” – tagline Gateway VIC – Bill shared that the Jefferson County Gateway VIC is picking up in activity. o News of new Executive Director, Shelly Leaven’s at Jefferson County Historical Society – working on ADA accessibility for Museum along with numerous other initiatives. o Working on Gateway’s 2019 budget submittal, and always working on volunteers. o Upcoming projects at VIC include improvements to: signage, renewal of railings and carpeting inside VIC Jefferson County Chamber – Arlene and Debbie were welcomed to TCC. o Debbie is the recently hired Volunteer Coordinator at Visitor Information Center o Arlene noted that summer volume at VIC has been as high as 50 visitors / hour. o Looking forward to extra Saturday night in September for lodging revenues. o Chamber is working on a new website with County-wide marketing and new emphasis on tourism. o Watch for details of a September 11 Business Expo. Brinnon – Joy reported that besides the impacts of smoke: • Lots of parking impacts at Rocky Brook Falls with 32-50 cars often in this undersized lot. • Dosewallips State Park continues to remain busy as does trailhead access to Rocky Brook Falls. Quilcene – Cleone reported that a surprise two-day Shrimp opening lead to lots of people dropping pots and pulling limits. o Hosted a successful wine tasting event o Worthington House enjoying new Webmaster and Events Coordinators. o Worthington Park is honored to be featured in the Summer 2018 issue of Tracing the Fjord magazine o Mansard Dormers taking shape! o Quilcene Oyster Races begin at 8:00 a.m. September 16 For details on the race, go to http://www.QuilRaces.com Adjournment - There being no further business the TCC meeting was adjourned at 12:03PM Next meeting of TCC is Tuesday September 11, 2018 - 10AM at the Inn at Port Ludlow. AREA UPDATES (Cont.) ADJORN