2015-2016 Report to the Community

Report to the Community 2015/2016

Visit Fort Wayne The Fort Wayne/Allen County Convention and Visitors Bureau, dba Visit Fort Wayne, is a community and economic development organization. We are governed by a 20 member board of civic leaders, staffed by 12 professionals, and financed by both public entities and private sector businesses to attract more visitors to our destination.

Our mission is to promote our city as a destination for conventions, trade shows, leisure visitors and sports tournaments. We do this so every business and resident can enjoy the economic and social benefits of a prosperous tourism industry.

Each year, visitors spend $545 million dollars in Allen County and contribute $28 million to our local tax base. This infusion of new dollars increases commerce for hundreds of businesses, while helping to sustain over 8,900 jobs. It also enhances everyone’s quality of life by generating new customers for places that residents get to enjoy, like attractions, arenas, ballparks, malls, restaurants and festivals.

Mike Nutter

Visit Fort Wayne does much more than serve as the community’s “advertising agency.” We also operate the Visitors Center to ”Welcome the World to Fort Wayne,” help businesses attract new employees, and help new residents get acquainted with their new home.

To view Fort Wayne from a visitor‘s perspective, we encourage you to visit our website at www.VisitFortWayne.com. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram too.

Please enjoy reading more about our accomplishments and plans for the future in this report. Thank you to all our industry partners and stakeholders for their support.

Dan O’Connell

Our strategic plan goals: 2015-2018 • Increase community support to make Fort Wayne a better visitor destination • Advocate for visitor-oriented development to improve and enhance the destination • Increase the competitiveness of Visit Fort Wayne in the state, region and nation

Sincerely,

Mike Nutter Dan O’Connell Fort Wayne TinCaps Visit Fort Wayne Chair, Visit Fort Wayne Board of Directors President/CEO

Our Mission Visit Fort Wayne conducts marketing and sales programs to attract visitors to our destination’s convention and tourism facilities so that our community can derive the economic and social benefits of a prosperous tourism industry.

Our Vision Fort Wayne is the best destination in the Midwest for conventions, trade shows, sports tournaments and fun, family getaway trips. Visitors enjoy their stay because of the famous “Hoosier Hospitality” they experience during their visit to Fort Wayne.

Our Goals •

• • •

Conduct sales and marketing programs to attract conventions, meetings and tournaments to Fort Wayne Produce advertising campaigns to attract leisure visitors and travel media attention Provide visitor information services to promote our community and industry partners Provide leadership to grow our community’s economy and its tourism industry

Economic Impact of Visitors Number of Annual Visitors

Wages and Salaries

Fort Wayne Visitors.................................................... 5.8 million Pass Through Visitors................................................. 2.1 million

Direct Wages and Salaries....................................$195,380,332

Represents a 2.1% increase over 2013 study.

Represents a 1.7% increase over 2009 study.

Visitor Expenditures Visitor Expenditures in Allen County.................... $560 million

Represents an annual growth of 2.3%.

Taxes Generated Local Taxes (hotel, food & beverage, property)...$30,351,700 State Taxes (sales, income, gas).............................$41,647,700

Represents a 2.5% increase over 2013 study.

Total Employment Direct Jobs (sustained by visitors).....................................9,134

Over 1/3 of jobs were in high wage occupations, 5% of all Allen County jobs. Tourism is Allen County’s 9th largest employer.

Visitor and Travel Characteristics Where Visitors Come From

Expenditures by Visitor Type Per Day

According to VisitFortWayne.com visits, Visitors Center inquiries and ad responses, visitors come to Fort Wayne from the following states:

Visiting Friends & Relatives......................................................... $70.87

Lodging Guests.......................................................................... $133.29 Day Trip Visitors............................................................................ $29.47

Indiana............................................................................................... 54% Ohio..................................................................................................... 9% Illinois................................................................................................... 8%

Expenditures by Type

Michigan.......................................................................................... 7.5%

Other.............................................................................................. 21.5%

Food & Beverage.................... 33%

Shopping.................................. 22%

Visitors by Trip Characteristics

Transportation.......................... 19%

Typical Travel Party................................................................ 3.2 people

Lodging..................................... 14%

Average Stay...............................................................................1.8 days First Visit to Fort Wayne............................................................... 44.2%

Visitors by Travel Type

Lodging Guests ........................44%

Day Trip Visitors .........................25%

Visiting Friends & Relatives .....20%

Pass-Through Visitors ...............11%

Attractions/Entertainment...... 12%

Group Sales Visit Fort Wayne’s Group Sales team works to solicit and secure conventions, meetings, trade shows, and sports tournaments to convene in Fort Wayne and Allen County facilities.

In 2016, our sales staff will attend eight major trade shows and marketplaces around the nation to meet with convention planners and sports event organizers. Shows include faith-based (RCMA and Rejuvenate Marketplace), association/ hobby (Destinations Showcase, ISAE and Connect Association), sports (NASC and Connect Sports) and group/bus tours (Heartland Travel Showcase).

On average, we book 25 groups per year, which bring about 35,000 visitors and $10 million to Fort Wayne annually.

2015 Accomplishments

2016 Goals

• Produced 48 sales leads for all market segments, resulting in future convention, meeting, tournament and group tour business.

• Exhibit at eight tradeshows around the nation to attract conventions, tournaments and bus tours to Fort Wayne.

• Exhibited at seven shows including a new one for us, Connect.

Connect is comprised of three separate marketplaces which are all in the same venue at the same time. We had 62 eightminute appointments in both the Association Marketplace and the Sports Marketplace.

• Conducted 11 personal site visits and created 15 custom bid books.

• Secured (together with the Grand Wayne Center) the booking of the SCRABBLE 2016 National Tournament.

• Work with Turnstone’s new athletic center to develop Fort Wayne as a center for Paralympic competition.

• Presented and booked the National Association of County Agricultural Agents 2019 Annual Meeting/Professional Improvement Conference. This was a huge win over Indianapolis.

North American Brass Band Championships

• Partnered with the Embassy Theatre on a presentation to the North American Brass Band Association to continue to bring their championship contests to Fort Wayne.

• Generated 48 leads and booked 34 groups, resulting in 21,523 room nights and $8,142,248 in economic impact.

11 8 million 800

April 1-2, 2016 Historic Embassy Theatre

• Generate 50 leads, conduct 12 site tours, and book 25-30 events that will result in 20,000 room nights and approximately $10 million for our local economy.

30 of the best brass bands in all the land will compete in Fort Wayne!

Catch Fort Wayne’s very own Old Crown Brass Band at this year’s National Championships!

Two-day tickets: $25 Adult, $10 Student

Purchase tickets at ticketmaster.com or by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000.

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NABBA Print Materials

Plassman Athletic Center at Turnstone

site tours of our community with potential planners

Booked future groups worth an estimated economic impact of over $8 million

brass instruments brought to Fort Wayne as part of the North American Brass Band Championship Contest!

Leisure Marketing and Communications Visit Fort Wayne uses advertising, marketing, public relations and social media activities to attract leisure visitors to Fort Wayne.

We promote Fort Wayne as a high-quality, low-cost family destination for getaway trips. Our goal is to produce 30 million exposures and generate over a million unique visitors to our website annually.

2015 Accomplishments

2016 Goals

• Advertised Fort Wayne using traditional advertising (TV, radio, newspaper, web) in 30 cities between 50-200 miles from Fort Wayne to encourage family getaways and overnight stays built around the many attractions and amenities in our community.

• Continue to build on our successful advertising and social media campaigns to promote our city to as many potential visitors as possible, including an increased ad spend in Indianapolis and other target cities.

• Re-launched VisitFortWayne.com with even more functionality and responsive capabilities for visitors using mobile devices.

• Launch a guerilla “Marketing Street Team” The Genealogy Center that will take our message (and a whole lot of fun) to target cities this summer. This effort will include on-street efforts, social media and advertising in advance and during, photo opps and more.

• Worked extensively with travel media including hosting them on FAM tours and garnering free earned media from many regional magazines and VisitFortWayne.com newspapers.

to research your family’s history:

Hours: Monday – Thursday: 9 am – 9 pm Friday – Saturday: 9 am – 6 pm Sunday: 12 pm - 5 pm

(Closed Sundays from Memorial Day – Labor Day)

The Genealogy Center

900 Library Plaza Fort Wayne, IN 46802 (260) 421-1225

at the Allen County Public Library

www.GenealogyCenter.org Downtown Fort Wayne

• Continue working with the Travel Media to secure more articles, blogs and stories about our city as a leisure destination. to the nation’s largest public genealogy collection –

and it is housed in a sophisticated new $65 million facility that is second to none!

• Expand Genealogy marketing efforts nationwide, helping promote this tremendous community asset.

And for further information on Fort Wayne, Indiana, please contact Visit Fort Wayne: 1-800-767-7752 or www.VisitFortWayne.com.

Where to Go to Find Out Where You’re From.

The Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Allen County Public Library

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• Organized several local community relations programs including “Be a Tourist in Your Own Hometown,” which had over 28,000 participants, creating more awareness and appreciation for our tourism industry partners and our organization.

You know she’s been DYING to visit.

We’ll help make it as painless as possible.

Visit Fort Wayne has the planning tools to help you know where to go, what to do, and how to make it a visit to remember.

AUNT_HTH_FWM_FullPageBLEED.indd 1

there is only one place

in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

• Our social media and digital marketing efforts were expanded in 2015, resulting in a 13% increase in Facebook fans, 35% increase in Twitter followers, and 168% increase in Instagram followers.

These results, and our increased web presence, resulted in our Marketing Department being awarded several digital marketing awards from Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly.

Host Them Here Ad Campaign

a seasoned professional genealogist,

in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Allen County Public Library

The Genealogy Center is home

• The summer’s advertising campaign was a huge success, which directly contributed to area attractions reporting their admissions increased between 3-9% over the previous year.

• Launched a new campaign, “Host Them Here,” encouraged Fort Wayne residents to invite their friends and family to visit Fort Wayne – and gave them the hosting tools needed to assist with planning.

In addition, we now appear on four radio, one TV and three e-newsletters weekly with this information.

Whether you are a

casual family historian or

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1,788 20

tweets sent from @VisitFortWayne

travel writers brought to Fort Wayne – many of whom had never been to Indiana before!

30 million impressions for our advertising in 2015

Visitor Services The Visitor Services Department acts as the primary point of contact for planners and visitors interested in Fort Wayne as a destination for their convention, tournament or family getaway trip. We provide advice and information in many forms to assist in the planning of a Fort Wayne visit.

2015 Accomplishments

2016 Goals

• Used new Simpleview database to better track visitors coming into the Visitors Center. We track where they’re from and what they’re looking for to better serve visitors in the future.

• Implement new POS system to streamline sales process in Visitors Center. This will allow more time to be focused on visitor interaction and less time on the administrative process.

• Implemented new The Visitors Center Welcomes Guests tools to better populate the online Calendar of Events.

• Increase data collected in Visitors Center to further specialize information provided to visitors.

• Increase availability of information available to sub-groups: boomers, bicycle tourists, foreign language/international visitors, disabled visitors, and more.

• Increase connections between visitors and the community by educating staff and providing more knowledge for visitors.

Also includes working with businesses to expand knowledge of conventions and visitors in town.

• Updated information and training for Visitors Center to better serve our guests, customizing information for each interaction.

• Updated merchandise in retail store to attract new customers.

fort wayne visit

2015

visitors guide

I N D I A N A

• Worked with large multi-venue task force to design a comprehensive field trip plan with the intention of drawing in more people from out-of-area and out-of-state.

• Focused heavily on pre-promotion for 2016 national conventions and events including the Academy for Advanced and Challenge Enthusiasts, the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association, and the National SCRABBLE Players Association. Utilized web tools to assist event planners with event promotion and access to community tools.

• Host convention and sports events while educating attendees about all that Fort Wayne has to offer.

festival fun

p4

a day downtown

p58

local eats p60 fort wayne for free p95

62,000 print pieces (Visitors Guides, maps, brochures) mailed out from Visitors Center

Fort Wayne is excited to host the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association International Convention in 2016!

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Welcome to Fort Wayne!

Fort Wayne, Indiana

2,188

postcards sold in Visitors Center Grand Wayne Convention Center

July 20-23, 2016 Grand Wayne Convention Center • Fort Wayne, Indiana

Hilton Downtown

Book your stay at the ALPCA host hotel – the Hilton Downtown Fort Wayne at the Grand Wayne Center, located in the heart of downtown Fort Wayne.

Connected to the Hilton is the Grand Wayne Center – where the ALPCA convention will take place.

Please use group code of LPC to secure a discounted rate of $99.

Please contact the hotel at 260-420-1100 or VisitFortWayne.com/LicensePlates2016 to get your room reserved.

Rooms will go fast – book now!

Renew old friendships and make new acquaintances, while experiencing our famous Hoosier Hospitality in Fort Wayne!

Get more information about Fort Wayne and book your stay at VisitFortWayne.com/LicensePlate2016

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• Assisted over 100 community event groups and 10,000 visitors with planning and information assistance, leading to better and more comprehensive events and more interaction with the community.

1,066,150 hotel rooms sold in Allen County in 2015

Special Projects The Special Projects Department serves our Industry Partners by promoting their business to visitors. We produce a Visitors Guide, website, information kiosks and maps where Industry Partners advertise their businesses.

2015 Accomplishments • Converted all partner listings to our new web platform, giving our partners new and effective promotion tools.

• Produced successful second year of Savor Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne’s restaurant week.

• Our Frontline Training Workshop had a record attendance with 80 attending, providing participants the tools needed to better assist and serve our visitors.

• Launched our new web-based version of the successful kiosk program, allowing better search, mapping and social media sharing. Upgraded all the equipment and software.

• Published a new format of the Visitors Guide with increased content and distribution.

Redesigned our Tear Off Map used by hotels and attractions.

• Met with our Industry Partners at our new “Connect” sessions.

2016 Goals

with

• Further expansion of our 360 virtual tours, including a community wide attraction version.

• Expanding Savor Fort Wayne to meet the growing desires of our restaurant and dining community.

• Development of projects for our new 501(c)3 foundation.

• Launched our new 360 virtual tours.

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• Launched “The F.O.R.T.,” our online portal for our members, enabling them to better promote their business to visitors.

• Producing community-wide “Summer of SCRABBLE” initiative.

page views on our Kiosk network partner members, working with us to promote their businesses to visitors glasses of water spilled at the TRF Waiter/Waitress contest, sponsored by Visit Fort Wayne

Administration The Administration Department insures that the organization operates efficiently and effectively, utilizing the leadership of the Board, skills of the staff, and resources provided to us by stakeholders and industry partners. We are also responsible for community relations, industry leadership and growing our community’s economy through tourism.

2015 Accomplishments • Provided Board leadership and staff expertise to make Fort Wayne a better destination for our hospitality industry partners by providing input on over 20 civic projects including the Riverfront Advisory Committee, Legacy Fund, City Signage, Turnstone’s Disability Sports Assessment, Regional Cities, and the Health Department’s new cleanliness code for hotels.

• When the State Legislature was considering the Religious Freedom Reform Act (RFRA), we quickly responded to answer

over 250 concerned calls from convention and tournament planners on how this legislation might impact their events and attendees. We conveyed factual data to our legislators which led to the amendment of the legislation.

• Worked to secure new resources for Visit Fort Wayne in order to be more competitive within the region, by starting a 501(c)3 foundation and pursuing an increase in the innkeepers tax.

• Successfully completed an independent audit, state board of accounts review, and met all IRS requirements.

Board of Directors - 2016

Staff

Mike Nutter, Fort Wayne TinCaps

Board Chairperson

Management & Finance

Danette Fitzgerald, Parkview Health

Vice Chairperson

Dennis Robinson, Director of Industry Partner Relations

Michael Sperry, Gordon Food Service Treasurer Dawn Rosemond, Barnes & Thornburg Secretary

Board Members Jim Anderson, Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo

Dan O’Connell, President/CEO Beth Monn, Bookkeeper/Administration Assistant

Marketing Kristen Guthrie, Director of Marketing Tom Boyer, Digital Marketing Manager John Felts, Marketing and Communications Specialist Jessa Campbell, Marketing Assistant

Group Sales Josie O’Donnell, Director of Group Sales Stephanie Coleman, Group Sales Manager, Sports

Tim Beere, DeBrand Fine Chocolates

Emily Stuck, Group Sales Assistant

Randy Brown, Allen County War Memorial Coliseum

Visitor Services/Visitors Center

Therese Brown, Allen County Commissioner

Megan Flohr, Director of Services

Steve Gard, The Oyster Bar

Jen Brown, Visitor Services Specialist

Tim Hall, Hall’s Guesthouse Scott Hinderman, FW/AC Airport Authority

Zoe Eastwood, Visitor Services Assistant Tina Paragopoulos and Nancy Niemann, Seasonal Visitors Center Staff

Angela Migues, City of Fort Wayne Don Osika, WPTA 21 ALIVE/WISE NBC 33 Mac Parker, Faegre Baker Daniels John Sampson, NE IN Partnership Melissa Schenkel, Star Financial Bart Shaw, Grand Wayne Convention Center Gary Shearer, Old National Wealth Management Lisa Starks, Barnes & Thornburg Kelly Updike, Embassy Theatre Irene Walters, Civic Leader

927 S. Harrison Street, Suite 101, Fort Wayne, IN 46802 1-800-767-7752 • 260-424-3700

www.VisitFortWayne.com