TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL

Thursday, April 13, 2023 – 9:00 A.M.

Minutes

Absent

Commissioner Maria Sachs, Chair Daniel Hostettler

Jim Bronstien, Vice Chair

Jim Mostad

Don Dufresne

Roger Amidon

Commissioner Adam Frankel

Commissioner Christina Lambert

Davicka Thompson

Staff

Verdenia Baker, County Administrator/by phone

Liz Herman, Assistant County Attorney

Joan Hutchinson, Tourist Development Council

Emanuel Perry, Tourist Development Council

Patricia Ramirez, Tourist Development Council

Vannette Youyoute, Tourist Development Council

Dave Lawrence, Cultural Council

Jennifer Sullivan. Cultural Council

Lauren Perry, Cultural Council

George Linley, PBC Sports Commission

David Fontanarosa, PBC Sports Commission

Michael Zeff, PBC Sports Commission

Michelle Hillery, Film & TV Commission

Alberto Jordat, Film & TV Commission

Jorge Pesquera, Discover The Palm Beaches

Milton Segarra, Discover The Palm Beaches

Aly Fernandez, Discover The Palm Beaches

Jaimie Hart, Discover The Palm Beaches

Beril Gutierrez, Discover The Palm Beaches

Evan Lomrantz, Discover The Palm Beaches

Gustav Weibull, Discover The Palm Beaches

Deborah Drum, ERM

Matt Mitchell, ERM

Dave Anderson, Convention Center/Spectra Venue Management

Kathy Griffin, Convention Center/Spectra Hospitality

Laura Beebe, PBI Airports

Paul Connell, PBC Parks & Recreation

Other

Diane Quinn, Kravis Center Performance Arts

Travis Ballard, State Representative Jervonte Edmonds

Elena Peroulakis, Wyndham Grand Jupiter

Kathleen Cad-Manar, Wyndham Grand Jupiter

Jodi Cross, FRLA

Leigh Bennett, Visit Florida

2. MOTION TO APPROVE AGENDA ADDITIONS AND DELETIONS*

Motion to approve Agenda was made by Roger Amidon and seconded by Davicka Thompson. Motion carried 6-0 with Jim Bronstien, Don Dufresne, and Daniel Hostettler absent.

3. MOTION TO APPROVE FEBRUARY 9th, 2023 TDC MEETING MINUTES*

Motion to approve the February 9th, TDC Meeting Minutes was made by Commissioner Adam Frankel and seconded by Jim Mostad. Motion carried 6-0 with Jim Bronstien, Don Dufresne, and Daniel Hostettler absent.

4. MOTION TO RECEIVE AND FILE CONSENT ITEMS FOR MARCH 2023 emailed to the Board and APRIL 2023 included under this Agenda*

MARKETING AGENCIES REPORTING

A. DTPB ACTIVITY REPORT*

B. CULTURAL COUNCIL ACTIVITY REPORT*

C. SPORTS COMMISSION ACTIVITY REPORT*

D. FILM & TV MONTHLY NEWSLETTER*

E. FILM & TV PRODUCTION REPORT*

PBC CONVENTION CENTER OPERATING REPORTS

F. CONVENTION CENTER INCOME STATEMENT & FINANCIAL OPERATIONS ANALYSIS COMPARED TO BUDGET & PRIOR YEAR*

G. CONVENTION CENTER MARKETING UPDATE*

H. CONVENTION CENTER “PACE” REVENUE REPORT*

OTHER TDC-SUPPORTED AGENCY/DEPARTMENTS REPORTS

I. ERM PROJECT STATUS REPORT*

J. PBI TRAFFIC REPORT*

K. CONTRACT TRACKING REPORT*

Motion to receive and file Consent items for March and April was made by Jim Mostad and seconded by Commissioner Adam Frankel. Motion carried 6-0 with Jim Bronstien, Don Dufresne, and Daniel Hostettler absent

5. OLD BUSINESS – DISCUSSION ITEMS

A. TDC TOURISM PERFORMANCE METRICS

1. TDC DASHBOARD CURRENT MONTH & FY2023* - Emanuel Perry a. Bed Tax Collections* b. Report Out Metrics*

Perry

Bed Tax Collection – February 2023 collected in March was $11.2M compared to the same month last year at $9.9M, a 13% increase. Actual February was 20% above budget and 21% above the prior month at $9.2M. Actual February was 60% higher than 2019, a new record for any February since reporting started.

FYTD 23 Collections at $44M, was higher than last fiscal year to date at $38M by 15%, reflecting a strong recovery from the pandemic. FYT collections at $44M are pacing 10% ahead of the Approved Budget and 55% higher than our record in 2019.

The Rooms sold for February were 440,255, 5% higher than last year. Rooms available for February at 527,884 are 2% higher than last year. Hotel Rooms Active today in the County 18,853.

Occupancy for February 2023 was 83.4%, 3% over last year. Occupancy for February 2022 was 81.2%. February 2019 was 85.6%. The average daily rate for February was $363.79, 5.7% higher than last year, and 36% higher than in 2019. The Revenue/Available Room for February 2023 was $303.45 higher than the prior February by 8.5%.

Hotel room net sales FY23 year over year February increased 9% at $154M compared to $142M. Non-hotel room sales FY23 year over year February increased 18% at $30M compared to $25M. Hotel room net sales FYTD 2023 increased 16% at $614M compared to $531M. Non-Hotel room sales FYTD 2023 increased 14% at $121M compared to $106M. FYTD 2023 Taxable Revenues Fiscal Year over FY2022 increased 15% at $735M compared to $637M. FYTD 2023 Taxable Revenues Fiscal Year over FY2019 increased 58% at $735M compared to $467M.

Airport passengers for February 2023 were 694,802, 15% higher than in February 2022, and the Total Estimated Seat Capacity at 16% higher than last February 2022 with 831,920 seats. PBI Passenger 12-month rolling is an 18% increase at 6,906,007 over last year.

Leisure & Hospitality Employment for February, at 98,700, increased 10% over the same month last year. Accommodation employment went up 12% higher over last year at 10,900 employees. F&B was up 16% at 67,400 employees. Arts & Entertainment employment is (6%) lower than last year at 20,400 employees.

Beebe

For the month of December, we were up about 8% of total passengers. In January we were up 32% over 2022.

February 2022 we were up 15%. We are approaching a total year-over-year passenger rate of almost 7M We may hit that this month in March over the prior year. Our air carrier operations were up for December by 2%, January by 10%, and February by 12%.

We were slightly down in general aviation operations by (2%). We also have a new service with Avelo Airlines starting on June 15th. They are going to Wilmington, North Carolina. We also have increased national service with Allegiant starting in October, they will be flying here four times instead of two times weekly.

There were some questions in the last meeting about our advertising program and the screens of each gate backdrop Those screens are for use by the airlines. Several airline preferential gates are there for their exclusive use. The remaining gates are operated by the department. They are connected to our community-backed processing system. They are not attached to our advertising system. They are two different systems. We have a robust advertising system and have been working with Discover The Palm Beaches a lot.

TDC has four screens, and you are getting ready to put two additional screens at the airport baggage claim, Discover The Palm Beaches logo is everywhere. Any vacant spaces that are not used are allowed to be used for tourism messages, we are not allowed to use them for commercial advertising. We can do airport services and airport programs, tourism messages, but not for advertising.

We also provide reduced rates for County partner agencies and nonprofits, including the Cultural Council, Film & TV, and Sports Commission. If you are not taking advantage of those lower rates, get in touch with us and we will connect you to the right people to do that.

We are also working with Discover right now to come up with a reimagined visitor center and baggage claim. We are looking to do something a little bit more interactive.

Bronstien

Any movement on the renovation of the customs building?

Beebe

We do have some funding for renovations. Are you talking about general aviation or commercial service or customs?

Bronstien

Private general aviation.

Beebe

For Private General Aviation, one building needs to be rebuilt. We have funding in place for that and construction will start in the next couple of years. We are also working on a design for the upgrade of our commercial service customs facility, which will be an expansion.

We are also working on our big project right now, the expansion of Concourse B, and when it is done, it will be fantastic. If you have not seen the pictures, go to our website and look.

Pesquera

Just a statement of appreciation for Laura Beebe and her team for their collaboration and cooperation, our activation in New York was probably one of the highlights that demonstrated how well we work with PBI. We think PBI can play a bigger role in tourism for Palm Beach County. We are sharing some data points from the research standpoint. It is just a great effort there. And Laura helped us bring a great conference here

Beebe

We are doing a lot of co-op advertising. We are sponsoring the Florida Airports Council in July 2023. It should bring a lot of people in from around Florida and from other states.

C. FY23 FORECAST & FY24 BUDGET* - MOTION TO APPROVE - Emanuel Perry

D. FY24 PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION BUDGETS* - MOTION TO APPROVE – Emanuel Perry

E. FY24 PERFORMANCE MEASURES* - MOTION TO APPROVE - Emanuel Perry

Perry

The Finance Committee met twice in February and once in March and came up with a budget that would help our agency stay competitive in the markets in which they operate.

Our forecast was for $80M and we are budgeting for 2024 $82M. I am seeking a motion to approve the FY2023 Forecast and Budget FY2024 Program Administration Budgets and FY24 Performance Measures.

Motion to approve FY2023 Forecast & FY2024 Budget, FY2024 Program Administration Budgets, and FY2024 Performance Measure was made by Jim Bronstien and seconded by Roger Amidon. Motion carried 7-1-0 With Don Dufresne opposed and Daniel Hostettler absent.

F. HB 5 & HB 7053 UPDATE – Open Discussion

Perry

There are two bills currently at the Capitol in Tallahassee. HB 5, which targets Enterprise Florida and will have a major impact on our Film and Sports Commissions, also the HB 7053 bill which will have an impact on everyone in this room as far as the allocation of Tourist Development Tax. In it, all urban counties would pay 5% to fund Visit Florida, and rural counties will pay 2% to fund Visit Florida.

Commissioner Sachs

As far as I have read, they are not going through the Senate yet. We are halfway through the session, and anything can happen until early May.

Amidon

The issue about Visit Florida is presented each year and we thought we had some success last year by getting the contract extended and thinking that the funding was going to follow automatically, but no.

If it does move forward this year there is no guarantee that it will be funded next year. I think it is going to be inevitable and funding is probably going to go away from Enterprise Florida. I know there is that tug-of-war between Enterprise and Visit Florida. I am hoping that the funding will continue.

Dufresne

I also believe there is more in that bill where the bed tax dollars do not have to be always utilized for Marketing the County. It can be used for other activities such as funding salaries of emergency personnel similar to what they did in the panhandle of Florida.

This has been going on for eight years and we have to take a more intelligent approach to combatting this. I am not saying there is no value in what we spend, but there are some more permanent dollars that we could put aside for something more permanent in nature. You are given the legislature and those that believe these agencies should not have any purpose and if we are going to donate 5%, I guarantee we will end up being a donor county, rather than getting any money back.

I have offered to meet with all the agency heads to discuss a more intelligent approach to this. You've got to be way ahead of this stuff. We are probably, in my opinion, eight years behind where we should be, and whom you are approaching in Tallahassee and how you are approaching this makes a difference.

Pesquera

My understanding is that the real target here is Enterprise Florida. They do a lot of trade missions and that sort of thing. The difference between Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida is that Visit Florida has a very highly proven ROI For every $1 they spend, they return $3.5 or $4 in value to the community. The same thing applies at the destination marketing level, and the county level as well. It is a proven fact that tourism led to the recovery of Florida after the Great Recession and after the pandemic. Florida is probably one of the most tourism-intensive places in the world and to play around with the idea that we should not promote it is a little misguided.

G. DTPB PRESIDENT & CEO RETIREMENT* – Emanuel Perry

Perry

In February, our President and CEO for Discover The Palm Beaches announced his retirement. I wanted to recognize him He served Palm Beach County for more than 15 years and helped transform how people view the Palm Beaches as a destination.

Pesquera

It has been a great privilege to serve this community I can say the organization is in good shape. It is strong, has a talented team, and I am sure that there will be continuity in terms of the success that we have been able to achieve. I am proud of the team, and I want to thank our colleagues from the other TDC agencies for their collaboration.

6. NEW BUSINESS – DISCUSSION ITEMS

A. TOURISM MASTER PLAN UPDATE – Emanuel Perry

Perry

The agency heads have been meeting to develop the Tourism Master Plan. We have gone through, and we've crafted what we considered a blueprint, and right now the Tourism Master Plan is with the Purchasing Department for review. Once Purchasing comes back with the final document we will be able to give you an overview before soliciting the RFP. The Master Plan will embody all 39 municipalities and the County as a whole.

Thompson

Could we see the RFP before it officially goes out?

Perry

We can certainly distribute it amongst the board members before it goes out.

Baker

Is the RFP requested to go back to the board members?

Thompson

The draft of it.

Baker

That is not a normal procedure. We can give you highlights of what we are looking for, If you have input, you can give it to us. But we don't share those RFP priorities before they go out.

Thompson

It was my misunderstanding that we would because I thought at one of the last meetings, we discussed reviewing the RFP before.

Baker

I apologize if I missed that, but it could have been perceived that when we give that out in advance to certain people, others will have an advantage.

However, as a part of this process, we can tell you, we are looking for a group that may be able to do blank and blank. Then you can give us your input if you think we are missing something. But we should not share that draft because again, it is the perception, and we know how that works.

Bronstien

Who is involved in determining what goes in it?

Pesquera

It has been a collective effort of all the agency heads, Verdenia, and TDC. Gustav was the lead researcher and put together a compendium of best practices. Several tourism master plans were selected from different organizations like LA, Phoenix, and Vancouver, which have done this before, and we put in it what was appropriate for Palm Beach County.

Bronstien

Did it get updated at all?

Pesquera

The big contribution by the group was about how to score the proponents

Bronstien

My question was if all the agency heads have vetted all this in advance and everybody's comfortable with it and been updated to today's desires that would be, from my point of view, that would be sufficient.

B. DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, & ACCESSIBILITY SUMMIT –

Jennifer Sullivan

Sullivan

I placed a little save the date for our Arts and Tourism Summit on DEIA at your seats. It is a two-day conference at the Convention Center, on August 30th and 31st The formal opening registration will be the first week of May and tied to National Tourism Week.

We had our first summit in 2021. It was during Covid with 150 attendees. We are trying to build on that success. We are following all of the state laws and we had some input from James Green at the County. This will be a voluntary event. Everyone will be opting in if they are attending. And due to the generosity of the County, and our agencies: Film, Sports, Discover, the Council, and the TDC contributing to funding the summit, it will be free for all attendees.

We are hoping for about 300 attendees this year. We are 90% done with the speaker program. Greg DeShields, the Executive Director of Tourism Diversity Matters, will be our keynote speaker.

We also have Sophia Hyder Hock, the Chief Diversity Officer for Destinations International. On day two we focus on the arts, and we are bringing Sarah Bellamy, the Artistic Director for the Penumbra Center for Racial Healing in Minneapolis. And we have a great lunch keynote that Sports is putting together with a panel discussion.

New this year, we will be providing a certificate of completion for everyone who attends on day one or day two. We are also offering SHRM credits and CEU credits through Barry University, again for those who opt-in, you need to go through both days to get those credits. We are hoping to bring out employees at every level at our organizations, at our cultural organizations, at our hotels, and with our restaurant partners. The idea for this training is to leave empowered to bring all of that information back to our organizations so that people feel welcome when they come to The Palm Beaches. Where there are travel restrictions and travel advisories, people can feel like they are welcome in The Palm Beaches and that means seeing everyone and understanding everyone and welcoming everyone.

I want to thank Heather Andrews with Discover. We both are working closely on the schedule, and we are meeting with members of each one of the agencies. I am looking forward to having all of you at The Convention Center again for a good partnership.

Commissioner Lambert

Could you tell us a little bit more about whom you are targeting to attend and what level of employees at the organizations you are reaching out to?

Sullivan

Everyone is welcome. In the first year, we saw maybe CEO level or manager level. But we are looking for all levels of employees because it is personal and professional development. We did get a lot of cultural organizations in our first year. We are also trying to get more from other industries Having our colleagues at the table I think will also help us get those folks to attend.

Commissioner Sachs

When you say accessibility, are you talking about those with intellectual disabilities or physical disabilities?

Sullivan Yes.

Commissioner Sachs

Do you know where that word comes from?

Drum

It's a Latin name for the genus of the species that is occurring out in the ocean. I am trying to demystify this. A lot of people are interested in this, and our phones have been blowing up. There is a lot of media hype around this annual event. Sargassum is something that occurs and shows up on our beaches every single year. Now, when you look at the satellite photos the amount of sargassum in the ocean has been increasing over time due to increased nutrients. It all derives from deforestation in the Amazon basin as it's deforested.

We have been preparing for this. It is an annual event, and the height of this is usually in June and July. What our Parks and Recreation Department does on the guarded beaches is hand rake out a little pathway from the beach to the water. We are at the height of our sea turtle nesting season. The regulatory agencies that are to protect endangered species under federal law prevent us from doing anything that would harm these species

On the ERM website, you will find a link. When you look at beaches, you can see that Sargassum seaweed is hitting We have been interfacing with Lindsay Wiegmann from Discover The Palm Beaches and provided information to the tourism partners. On our website, we have created an issue summary on this item. It has all the information about what sargassum is and what the ongoing issues are.

We typically let it sit and it can be a great beach stabilizer, this can be the reason that your beaches don't wash away when hurricanes come. In the history of Palm Beach County, we have not raked our beaches. If you've just spent $300,000 raking the beach, it will last for six hours and then you're bringing it back in.

Whoever is doing the cost-benefit analysis in the town of Palm Beach, they've decided it is worth it. And for example, Miami-Dade County currently has $6M budgeted to rake sargassum off their beach just for this couple month period. We do not have the budget for that.

If at any point anybody, the board, or you, decides that it is worth spending the money, we will have the permit ready to take action. I had a conversation with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection yesterday and they are going to walk us through what that process looks like.

Commissioner Sachs

Since this is a multi-county, I think we should make a demand on the State of Florida as well, possibly on the feds with the Coast Guard to do something to fund at least the relocation.

Drum

The headlines have not escaped the State's attention. And they have been proactive in reaching out to Ms. Baker and to my office to offer their support. They're not talking about funding at this point. Counties from Monroe County to Martin County on the East Coast have put together an information exchange group on sargassum. We have been meeting for over a month. We have a very long list of participants, and we are sharing information and approaches to what people are seeing. What are some of the early detections that we have? What are the tools that we have?

We have beach cams on many of our beaches. We have included those links on our webpage, so people can see the status of the beaches and if they are planning their vacation, they can go onto those beach cams and see the status of the beaches.

Amidon

What about the preventative measures that were decided that we are not going to put booms out there or to prevent it?

Drum

Why don't we block all the seaweed with some kind of barrier? Any barrier that you put out is also going to be a barrier to sea turtles trying to lay an egg on the beach and it is going to also entangle dolphins or other wildlife. And then you've got a different PR nightmare on your hands.

Dufresne

I was curious about the turtle issue because when the little ones come out of the nests, how do they navigate the Sargassum?

Mitchell

They can do it. It's just part of the natural system. They can usually get over quite a bit of it, it is a natural part of their cycle too.

Drum

It is protection for them too from some of the large critters. It is a natural process that sea turtles might have to deal with in any given year. We are going to be looking at all of that and the sea turtle biologists are especially looking at that as well. The more alarming thing is how much plastic and garbage are in the ocean.

Commissioner Lambert

You mentioned the possibility of this helping to prevent beach erosion during hurricanes. How much research has gone into that?

Drum

Typically, what happens is the seaweed kind accumulates on the shore. Then if you have a natural event like a nor-easter, come through and it puts sand on top of it and it buries the seaweed on the beach, that has been a method of getting rid of it. And that's something that we're looking into, burying it. Are there opportunities to just have a designated area on the beach where you dig a big deep hole and put it all in there and then put sand on top? And there are some pilot studies on that and determine that as it settles and decomposes, you end up with a big hole in the beach and you might have an issue with that. But we are looking for affordable ways to deal with it. But, with nature, you just can never time things the way you perfectly want to all the time.

Commissioner Sachs

What happens to it after a while?

Drum

It washes away, it decomposes, and it becomes just part of the nutrient cycle. It is the extra nutrients that we put into everything. And it is like the deforestation of the Amazon that level of increased nutrients makes it much bigger than it normally would be under natural conditions. We will coordinate with Parks very closely to make sure that we are balancing all of the needs

Thompson

When is the Turtle Event?

Drum

Do not know yet. We will keep you updated. Could be early in mid-June, we have four walks, and the height of this does not hit until late June or July, maybe we will be fine depending on the weather. You might have another weird weather thing that pushes it all.

Amidon

Is there any type of scaling the severity of it?

Drum

We are at level zero or one. But even if it were at a level four, it still might not be a big deal for our beach, but it might be a big deal for Broward. It is just hard to measure it. That is why we like the beach cams because they give you a visual of what we are dealing with.

A positive thing that came out of Outside magazine. It is very well distributed. It's a major magazine, but one of their frequent contributing journalists wrote a piece that they did not coordinate with us, but it said, boot up the 10 greatest hikes on Earth. And five of them were in the US and only one was east of the Mississippi River. That was our ocean to Lake Hiking Trail in our County. We are going to coordinate further, and we have reached out and tried to arrange a follow-up feature to continue to promote the Lake Hiking tourism piece. Having him here facilitates that so there is an opportunity.

Thompson

What is the Ocean to Lake Trail?

Drum

It goes from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean through our county and partly through Martin. There is a trail, and you can hike it and you can go that whole way.

Commissioner Sachs

How can we tell everybody about this?

Drum

On our website, you will see all the links to all trials. We have a great partnership with the Florida Trail Association. They do a lot of our volunteer events, but it was cool to have that kind of coverage in Outside magazine. And we also have a great relationship with REI, which is a local company here.