DRAFT** FY2019 Visit Sarasota County Business Plan / Scope of Services - VisitSarasota.com

LONGBOAT KEY • ST ARMANDS • LIDO KEY • SIESTA KEY • CASEY KEY
           VENICE • MANASOTA KEY • ENGLEWOOD • NORTH PORT

                           VisitSarasota.com

                         **DRAFT**
FY2019 Visit Sarasota County Business Plan / Scope of Services

SITUATION
From 2016 through 2018, Sarasota County has experienced an increase of 1,177 hotel rooms as new hotels
have come online. Hotel room inventory grew from 5,114 to 6,291 for a 23% increase. Hotel inventory makes
up about half of the annual room inventory in Sarasota County as not all condo/vacation homes are on the
market continuously throughout the year. Hence, the increase in hotel inventory represents about a 12% in-
crease in overall room inventory in Sarasota County.

This is an opportunity budget that will propel Sarasota County closer to the $30 million TDT collection goal

Visit Sarasota County (VSC) is proposing an 8.3% increase in the FY 2019 marketing budget because this is an
historic opportunity to boost Sarasota County’s revenue.

This plan will generate:
- Using conservative Lodging Average Daily Rate of $160 and occupancy of 65%, the Tourist Development Tax
will increase by $2.2 million, an 11% increase.
- Sarasota County Government will receive an additional $11.2 million in tax revenue.
- The Sarasota community will experience a $200 million in visitor economic activity, a 12% increase.

CONTRIBUTION BY SARASOTA COUNTY
Based on a 2017 study by the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research, the research arm of the
Florida Legislature, local destination organizations, such as VSC, are responsible for generating 22.4% of the vis-
itors to Florida. Using this data, VSC’s marketing efforts were responsible for generating $409,737,300 in direct
visitor spending in Sarasota County in CY2017.
Teamwork makes the dream work.

Years ago, it was mostly product and pricing that drove consumer demand. We saw the shift of experiences
and engagement driving demand. Today transparency has gained importance in the current climate of crisis of
trust – and what destination organizations such as VSC do is more important than ever.

VSC runs an integrated program where all team members work hand in hand to ensure that maximized brand
awareness is achieved to generate quality tourism. The marketing and sales teams within VSC works closely
with the tourism industry and other community partners such as chambers of commerce to champion our
diversity so that community pride is clear and VSC’s messaging is effective.

This integrated program values diversity, transparency and inclusion and incorporates tactics to celebrate
this fact.

OVERARCHING

GOALS
• Visitor numbers will increase 5% over FY 2018.
• Tourist Development Tax will grow by 11% over FY 2018
• Attract at least two International Events to Destination.

Goal 1 – Brand
Research is at the heart of VSC’s creative development and advertising decisions. Research helps the VSC to
understand trends and opportunities for new market segments and research validates the effectiveness of
VSC programs.

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
- Create impactful niche campaigns for:
       o      Nature (Beaches / Outdoors),
       o      Arts & Cultural Activities,
       o      Shopping & Culinary,
       o      Group business inclusive of
		•                   Meetings,
		            •       SMERF, (Social, Military, Education, Religious, and Fraternal)
		•                   Sports
		            •       and more.

PURCHASED MEDIA
- Drive new demand to meet increased hotel inventory by placing advertising to reach additional
market segments.
- Stretch media buying dollars by more collaboration.
- Match dollars by tourism industry through reverse co-op marketing program.
- Presence in print, digital and out of home activations.
- $250,000 Airline Incentive Program

EARNED MEDIA
- Do Media Relations in a new way. Work with agencies in key markets with a laser targeted focus to maximize
dollars spent.
- Create opportunities for “Arts/Cultural” and “Outdoor” “Meetings” focused earned media.
- Work in synergy with advertising program to ensure same markets are being penetrated effectively
and efficiently.
- Strong outreach in global markets that create the most visitation for our area, Canada, United Kingdom
and Germany.

VISITSARASOTA.COM (WEBSITE, CONTENT & SOCIAL MEDIA)
All roads lead to VisitSarasota.com. VSC has robust content on its website that focuses on Sarasota’s tremen-
dous offerings. From sponsored content, digital redirects, to the URL’s that VSC places on ads, out of home
activations and more – VSC aims to get consumers to the site in order to direct them to book rooms,
reservations, tickets and more from Sarasota County businesses. Content leading from social media platforms
and more will continue to inspire the “share”, “like”, “tweet” – and aiming for a “repeat”!

- Hire local and diverse freelance writers to showcase all that Sarasota County has to offer a visitor.
- Create consumer, niche, and industry e-newsletters that have relevant and timely content that drives
consumers to create signals of intent to travel and convert to visitors.
- Create test pilot program for social media or sponsored content /Facebook campaign.
- Measure and influence organic traffic to VSC web platform to show VSC’s reactive and proactive approach.

PROMOTIONAL PROGRAMMING
- Stay on top of trends and share through free professional development opportunities for the Sarasota Coun-
ty industry. Host at least one educational opportunity each quarter for the tourism industry.
- Partner with associations that bring VSC resources and opportunities.
- Market events that drive overnight visitation and that match community brand and build community
engagement through marketing grant program. Serve entities that are not currently served through other
Tourist Development Tax programs.
- Create new marketing grant program and guidelines.

OUTCOMES
o Ads with images and copy that promote diversity and inclusion for each market segment.
  •       Minimum 4 hero shots focused on diversity & inclusiveness
  •       Minimum 1 piece of content per quarter focused on diversity and inclusiveness
o Measure dollars spent in collaborations, such as with Southwest Florida destination organizations,
  VISIT FLORIDA and BRAND USA and establish two programs.
o Bring $100,000 in added media value to the table through co-op and collaborations.
o Increase visitor guide distribution in key markets by 10% through a wrapped drop/distribution plan.
o 950 Million overall earned media impressions
  •       Minimum ten million impressions promoting Arts /Cultural Assets
  •       Minimum ten million impressions promoting Outdoor/Nature
  •       Minimum ten million impressions promoting diversity and inclusivity
  •       One niche public relations project per quarter with a goal of 1 million impressions specific to
		each project.
o Grow outbound referrals from VSC web platforms by 5%
o Grow VSC Social Platform Aggregated Content Views by 5%

Goal 2 - SALES DEVELOPMENT
Create the Sales Plan, Work the Plan, Deliver Leads.

SALES OUTREACH
Encourage more room nights for current and new lodging product in the destination through group and inter-
national visitation. VSC meeting sales effort will focus on identifying local thought leaders, organizations, ven-
ues and experiences that can be identified within different business, non-profit and arts and cultural segments.
The latest meetings research shows that meeting planners, particularly in the corporate segment, consider
themselves “business development specialists,” and appreciate destination organizations’ suggestions, over
and above the standard hotels, venues and activities that are a good fit with their program to help them create
their overall business vision.

- Increase targeted sales missions and VSC special events to meeting planners in key feeder markets.

 - Focus on generating a larger presence for the Sarasota County tourism industry at tradeshows across all
markets by renting bigger tradeshow booths & offering complimentary industry participation and doing more
tradeshow & conference sponsorships.

- Expand meeting and leisure incentive programs to encourage “off season” visitation & business.

- Partner with neighboring Gulf Coast destinations to create a larger marketing presence internationally in
market(s) showing potential for area growth.

- Position Sarasota County as the ideal destination among minority and specialty markets such as spring train-
ing tours and religious conferences through incentives, familiarization tours, tradeshows and sales missions.

OUTCOMES
o      Support at least 10 different local businesses attending tradeshows/VSC-hosted events
       across all markets.
o      Book 500 room nights in the destination from minority and specialty markets.
o      Send a minimum of a 115 group leads to Sarasota County accommodations.

SPORTS & ATHLETIC OUTREACH
VSC Sports sales efforts will focus on a theme of “expanding and enhancing” – expanding the event portfo-
lio to include new sports and enhancing athletes’ and spectators’ experiences in Sarasota County to ensure
return visits.

- Increase bookings and retention in the athletic training market by providing support and services that en-
hance athletes’ and coaches’ stay in Sarasota County. While there is extensive growth potential in the training

SPORTS & ATHLETIC OUTREACH CONTINUED
market, VSC has recognized their needs differ from the events market. By tailoring VSC support through a
newspecialized Training Grant Program, VSC can better service them.

- Broaden Sarasota County’s sports event portfolio to include newly emerging sports. With the rapid and con-
tinued popularity growth of newly classified sports, such as eSports, drone racing and pickleball, it is imperative
that VSC pursue these opportunities to ensure future market-share.

- Expand the impact of sports visitors outside the event venue through active promotion of Sarasota County’s
attractions, arts, cultural, dining and entertainment offerings to athletes and spectators before and during their
trip.

- Promote Sarasota County’s spirit of inclusion and diversity by actively pursuing minority-based sports events.

- Host the Under 23 World Rowing Championships in July 2019, as the third World Rowing event in Sarasota
County in three years. This will solidify venue and destination credibility to host future national and regional
events in rowing and other sports; and promote training trips for year-round visitation.

OUTCOMES
o      Book at least 5 new teams for training trips
o      Add a minimum of two new sports to Visit Sarasota County’s sports event portfolio
o      Secure at least 100 check-ins on VSC social media platforms from sports visitors
o      Produce a minimum of $80,000,000 indirect economic impact for Sarasota County

Goal 3 – Visitor Services
Attract, Educate & Delight.

- Provide Visitor Services within the County through a variety of outlets and collaborations.
- Distribute VSC Collateral all over the world both in print and digital to inspire travel to Sarasota County. En-
sure that needs of visitors are being met with collateral.
- Educate volunteers, visitors and the industry.
- Dedicated advertising to reach out to visitors in destination to come to Visitor Center.
- Host events at Visitor Center that are promoted/targeted to visitors in area.
- Create a Grant Program for Collateral.
- Implement a “Ticket Center” with a monthly rotation of advertisements for shows / tickets applicable for that
month/season.

OUTCOMES
o      Increase face to face interactions by 10% through VSC Outlets/Efforts
o      Service and support at least 4 Industry Partners through the Collateral Grant Program
o      Educate locals and industry inclusive of Businesses like, Airbnb and Uber/Lyft Drivers with one “event”
       per quarter.
o      Benchmark and track sales from Visitor Center Ticket Center to measure success.

ADMINISTRATIVE AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
- Professional Services Fee in the County agreement covers 89% of the VSC personnel costs to manage this
agreement. The remainder of the costs of personnel, office space, utilities, etc. are paid for with private sector
funds.
- Only 17% of the FY 2019 budget goes to Professional Services compared to the national average of 39%.
- VSC will continue to develop and monitor the marketing benefits provided to Sarasota County by the Balti-
more Orioles and the Atlanta Braves. The VSC is also available to provide services to Sarasota County in the
face of an emergency activation.

Document Prepared as of: May 31, 2018