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Tourism Business Improvement District
Annual Report 2013-14
1 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
Letter from the Chair
This year the City of San Luis Obispo’s Tourism
Business Improvement District (TBID) marked the fifth
year of business since the district was established. This
momentous year brought with it tremendous results
of our marketing program and also the opportunity to
move our efforts forward into the next phase of
tourism marketing for San Luis Obispo.
In fiscal year 2013-14, the Transient Occupancy Tax
reached it’s the highest annual collection amount in
the City’s history, just over $6 million in total. Nearly every month produced record setting
numbers for both occupancy and Average Daily Rate (ADR). This achievement proves that our
efforts are returning great value to our members and the City as a whole.
Over the past year, the TBID Board welcomed two new commissioners to our seven member
advisory Board: John Conner of Petit Soleil and Michael Adams of the Courtyard by Marriott.
Commissioner Conner is no stranger to the TBID, in fact he can be credited with spearheading
the formation of the district and subsequently served two complete terms as Board Chair.
Commissioner Adams, while being new to the role of an official Board Member, as a constituent
member he has served on numerous TBID taskforces and committees over the past five years
and has also represented the City at various travel industry and consumer tradeshows. Their
dedication and leadership will serve the San Luis Obispo lodging businesses well.
This was the year of forward thinking for the district. We dedicated much of our time and effort
on looking toward the opportunities that the next five years can bring for tourism in the San Luis
Obispo. The Board and staff invested significant time, resources, and hard work in developing a
five year strategic clarity document that will serve as the framework for the direction that the
TBID will purse moving forward. Our development of a long-term strategic plan for our TBID has
once again shown our leadership amongst local TBIDs, many of whom are now pursuing a
similar process. This year we commissioned new technologies for our marketing program
including: GoSLO a mobile gamification platform and the Helium booking engine to ensure that
we were continuing to be relevant in the constantly changing travel business.
2013-14 was also the final year of our marketing contract with Rosetta, our trusted agency who
guided us through the establishing our tourism marketing efforts from the very beginning. As
that partnership came to a close, we redefined our future programs by selecting two local
marketing agencies, Barnett Cox and Associates (BCA) and StudioGood, through a very
competitive process to manage and further develop our brand. We are proud of our
accomplishments this year and we are excited for what’s coming next!
Sincerely,
Nipool Patel
2 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
Contents
Background ………………………………………………………………….3
Goals & Objectives ………………………………………………………..5
Marketing Platform …………………………………………………….…6
2013-14 Summary………………………………………………………….7
2013-14 Data Comparison ……………………………………………14
Financial Statement………………………………………………………16
3 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) – Background
In June 2008 the City Council adopted Ordinance 1517 establishing the tourism business
improvement district (TBID) in the City of San Luis Obispo as requested by the local lodging
industry. The assessment of two percent of gross receipts for the district became effective on
October 1, 2008 and the use of funds was defined in Section 12.42.030 of the Municipal Code as
follow:
“This ordinance is made and enacted pursuant to the provisions of
the Parking and Business Improvement Area Law of 1989
(Sections 36500 et. seq., of the California Streets and Highways
Code). The purpose of forming the district as a business
improvement area under the Parking and Business Improvement
Area Law of 1989 is to provide revenue to defray the costs of
services, activities and programs promoting tourism which will
benefit the operators of hotels in the district through the
promotion of scenic, recreational, cultural and other attractions in
the district as a tourist destination.”
Advisory Body
The use of the assessment fund is based on the recommendation of the Tourism Business
Improvement District advisory board that is staffed by City of San Luis Obispo hotel owners,
operators, and/or managers. The board members are appointed by the City Council and serve
for an initial term of four years with the opportunity to serve second term for a maximum of
eight years.
2013-14 Advisory Board
Name Property Term
Clint Pearce - Past Chair Madonna Inn 3/31/2015
Dean Hutton Apple Farm 3/31/2017 (2nd term)
John Conner Petit Soleil 3/31/2015
Matthew Wilkins Sands Inn 3/31/2016
Nipool Patel - Chair Comfort Inn 3/31/2016 (2nd term)
Michael Adams Courtyard 3/31/2017
Kimberly Walker Granada Inn 3/31/2017 (2nd term)
4 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
Advisory Body Bylaws
In addition to the governing City ordinance, the TBID Board established its advisory body bylaws
and further defined its role and functions as:
The functions and duties of the TBID BOARD shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
A. Planning a comprehensive program to promote tourism to the City of San Luis Obispo and
prepare an annual marketing program consistent with industry goals and objectives.
B. Develop advertising and promotional programs and projects to benefit the lodging industry in
San Luis Obispo.
C. Present an annual assessment report to the City Council regarding the implemented
promotional programs and projects.
D. Perform any other lawful tasks as directed by the Council.
The board meets monthly on the second Wednesday at 10 a.m. for its regular board meeting. In
2013-14, the board met in 12 regular monthly meetings and 7 special meetings. Additionally, it
appointed a budget task force, strategic plan taskforce, and marketing RFP taskforce and
appointed three of its members to serve on the events promotion subcommittee together with
three members of the Promotional Coordinating Committee. In order to keep the lodging
constituency abreast of all TBID business, the board assigned liaisons and each board member is
responsible for communication with his/her respective group of hotels. The board chair and
staff continue to visit all properties at least once a year to personally bring TBID updates and
marketing opportunities to each property.
5 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
Goals and Objectives
Objective
The TBID’s objective is to promote tourism to San Luis Obispo and expeditiously increase
overnight stays in City hotels or simply: “Put heads in hotel beds”.
Goals
The goals to achieve the objective are five-fold and are the base for all promotional efforts and
the programmatic approach within the marketing strategy:
1. Increase occupancy at all 38 hotel properties throughout the year;
2. Increase occupancy during shoulder months;
3. Increase occupancy mid-week;
4. Stabilize bookings and emphasize the City as a year-round destination;
5. Increase the length of stay.
The objective and the goals are at the core of all efforts put forth under the TBID annual work
program. The initial efforts concentrated on an advertising campaign centered around the
tourism website www.sanluisobispovacations. After five years, the TBID’s program has matured
into a promotional marketing platform utilizing a multitude of elements in support of the
defined goals and set objective.
6 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
2013-14 Marketing Strategy
All of the TBID’s efforts are driven by the objective and goals to increase demand for overnight
stays and hotel occupancy. The City’s tourism website www.sanluisobispovacations.com
continues to remain the center piece to which all other efforts drive traffic. A key measure
within the site is the use of the “Hotel Finder” which is dominantly placed on all pages within
the site. Subsequently, the TBID has developed an additional website www.shareslo.com
focused on aggregating content produced by residents to tell our community’s unique stories
and serve as the foundation of our social media marketing efforts.
In 2013-14 the five pillar marketing platform approach was expanded to include a sixth pillar for
social media. These pillars utilized distinct elements to broaden awareness of San Luis Obispo as
a destination and to actively bring people to town.
2013-14 Marketing Platform
Advertising Partnerships Tradeshows
Events
Promotion
Tourism
Organizations Social Media
7 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
2013-14 Marketing Detail
Advertising
With a fully operating media funnel for the past four years, the
campaign has been able to advance the objectives in the recovering
travel market. The funnel concentrates on the four key elements:
utilizing traditional and online advertising, social media, search tools,
and a monthly newsletter to drive traffic through the funnel and
ultimately result in booking a hotel room in San Luis Obispo.
In fiscal year 2013-14, the TBID maintained the budget allocations
initiated in 2012-13 and as a result, the marketing and advertising
contract was stabilized at the previous year investment level.
Based on this approach, the marketing strategy was adjusted to the
focus “back to the basics” of the TBID’s proven success. The 2013-14
marketing campaign continued to deepen the targeting of experience specific interests and
maximized the user experience on the website, using current traveler research and site analytics
aggregated from the previous year.
The executed plan utilized the following strategies:
o Re-engage a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing
(SEM) strategies
o Leverage the targeted email strategy
o Create new banner suites to take advantage of partnership programs
o Normalize the media spend
Focusing on SEO and SEM, the City’s Marketing Agency for the TBID, Rosetta Marketing
completed a full website audit for thorough analysis of the website's strengths and weaknesses.
They reviewed user behavior, traffic sources and site usability to provide a comprehensive view
of the site's performance. Based on the results from the audit, the agency’s web team
completely optimized the content on the site in order to increase the site performance and
enhance the user’s experience. They also evaluated and adjusted the keyword strategy to
ensure that the search results related to San Luis Obispo would result in visits to
www.sanluisobispovacations.com .
The results of these efforts included:
• 49% increase in visits to website in 2014 vs. 2013 year cycle
• 54% increase in overall users
• 18% increase in page views
8 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
Website Traffic Comparison for 2013-14 to 2012-13
Expenditure Detail
As mentioned above, Rosetta Marketing, continued to purse an aggressive digital heavy media
campaign. Due to aggressive media buying, constant monitoring and campaign adjustment, the
agency spent the complete $600,000 of the budget on general marketing expenditures and
campaign overall.
A significant portion of the targeted digital advertising spend was specifically invested in in the
high performers like Display in Google, which is cost per click instead of impression-based, and
Trip Advisor, a primary travel research outlet. These outlets were pursued because they are
both mid-funnel in the buyers behavior with a lower cost to convert to a booking. Rosetta also
kept the low-funnel pay-per-click SEM in intact to not miss travelers actively looking for San Luis
Obispo travel options and lodging.
Additionally, the agency added support to further grow the TBID’s social media presence by
investing in regular Facebook ads and promotions for the ShareSLO program.
Social Media
The TBID’s social media platform has been built on a program called ShareSLO. In 2012-13,
ShareSLO is one of the major marketing initiatives and the program continued in 2013-14. The
program is aimed at developing a new approach to managing social media networks though
consistent and relevant content upload and participation. The program was crafted as a way to
launch the TBID into the social media networks through creating a unique platform and program
to build community support and content integration.
In 2013-14, the ShareSLO program continued to be focused on building the community. In order
to accomplish this, the key strategies included:
• Interacting and engaging with the public to expand awareness
• Connect with event organizers for potential promotional opportunities in SLO
• Promote San Luis Obispo and events on social networks reaching outside area to
increase visitors
• Document events and activities and share on social networks
• Contribute ti the community forum blog on ShareSLO.com
9 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
ShareSLO.com is a community-generated information hub providing up-to-date and entertaining
accounts of life in the happiest city in North America. It celebrates all that San Luis Obispo has to
offer, through the eyes of real residents and visitors. With a local events calendar, community
blog and live feeds from Twitter and Instagram, ShareSLO.com helps visitors live like the locals.
The ShareSLO.com blog reports on activities and events, local hot spots and backroad
adventures that are all uniquely San Luis Obispo. Whether wine, food, outdoor activities or Cal
Poly life, ShareSLO bloggers are in-the-know when it comes to local happenings and Central
Coast life. Visitors can find them out on the town and online enjoying everything that makes our
city great.
ShareSLO.com is populated with content provided by community members and the Street
Team. The Street Team is encouraged to use the hashtag term (#shareslo) on their social posts
in order for the results and reach of their post to be tracked. Serving as the TBID’s social media
platform, the campaign generated substantial results and reach for the SLO TBID.
ShareSLO Results by the Numbers
Mobile Experience Development
The mobile trend has been on a continual growth trajectory. The TBID’s website,
www.sanluisobispovacations.com, has seen incredible growth in mobile usage up 46% over last
year. Previously, the TBID’s website was mobile compatible but not responsive which negatively
impacted the user experience. Below is a chart reflecting the increase in mobile traffic since the
launch of the City’s tourism website in 2010.
10 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
Mobile Traffic to sanluisobispovacations.com
In response to this influx in mobile traffic, the TBID prioritized the development of new
technologies for the TBID’s website to enhance the mobile experience. The analytics that
showed that visits to the mobile site were mostly likely in market while a
traveler was already in San Luis Obispo, so in response Rosetta designed
a complete mobile experience rather than just updating the site to be
responsive.
The mobile experience called GOSLO is a gamification take on traditional
itinerary planning an serves as an on-the-go mobile companion to the
City’s tourism website, SanLuisObispoVacations.com. Much like a
‘matchmaking’ scenario, GOSLO allows users to choose activities from a
series of illustrated cards. Based on their preferences, GOSLO generates
their ‘SLO style badge’ with a customized vacation itinerary. GOSLO
vacation styles include the SLOcavore for wine and food enthusiasts,
SLOmancer for those wishing for a romantic getaway and the Kerouwhack for travelers looking
for quirky, off-the beaten path recommendations. This experience launched in late May 2014.
Partnerships
In 2013-14, this element of the marketing mix continued to expanded from solely focusing on
partnerships for exclusive lodging in San Luis Obispo to include partners that could help
strategically support and expand the marketing efforts of the TBID overall.
For example, a new partnership in 2013-14 was with San Luis Obispo
Wine Country Association. This relationship was something that the TBID
had hoped to establish for a number of years but was unsuccessful in
doing. However in 2013-14, the TBID was able to establish a beneficial
marketing partnership with SLO Wine. The main objective was to establish
a dynamic partnership to build tourism in conjunction with the wine
industry and increase awareness of the region overall. In addition to the
opportunities to work with SLO Wine to host media , trade, and VIP consumers, the TBID and its
constituents received outstanding membership benefits from SLO Wine including:
11 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
• Announcements and hyperlinked logo on over 50 in SLO Wine E-Newsletters distributed
to over 10,000 subscribers which resulted in over 200 direct click throughs to the TBID’s
website
• Website branding on SLOWine.com with listing under associate members and “Stay”
Section, the TBID logo & banner ads featured throughout website and premier logo
placement under member partner page
• Ad space in SLO Wine Country Map with 60,000 maps printed and distributed in all
hotels, CA Visitors Centers, Chambers, and in Ventura & SB County.
The longest standing partnership with Cal Poly Athletics began in 2011-12,
when the City entered into a three-year agreement to host all of Cal Poly’s
conference visiting teams, recruits, and athletic guests. In 2013-14 the
contract was in the final year and the program continued stronger than ever.
Again, 575 guests from eight different sports were lodged in San Luis Obispo
not including visiting parents and other guests travelling with the teams.
Besides the direct lodging component, the sponsorship benefits opened the
Cal Poly Athletics newsletter and alumni list to the promotional efforts of the TBID in addition to
exclusivity on hotel messaging at all the stadiums, programs, and promotional tools of Cal Poly
Athletics. This partnership expanded to help support the ShareSLO campaign and to build
awareness with students and Cal Poly fans to #shareslo.
In 2013-14, the exclusive partnership with Nature Corps to secure
lodging of all volunteer vacation participants in San Luis Obispo was
continued for the third year. Since 1987 the Nature Corps has organized
luxury volunteer vacations to help bridge the gap between dwindling
resources and the growing need for preservation and rehabilitation of
fragile wilderness ecosystems within the national and state parks. In San
Luis Obispo County, the Corps offers two packages that benefit Morro
Bay and Hearst Castle State Parks. Volunteer vacations have tremendously gained in popularity
as people are not only looking to visit scenic places, but to give meaning to their travels.
Volunteer vacations offer this experience as they mix meaningful restoration work in the
country’s national and state parks with sightseeing and entertainment. Ideally, the packages
were to bring Nature Corps participants to San Luis Obispo for stays Monday through Friday and
were placed in the shoulder months in alignment with the TBID’s goals. In 2013-14 the Nature
Corps team moved forward with Rosetta to realign their brand and website to better serve the
guest in an effort to return results for the TBID. The updates drew great interest and finally
resulted in one major group booking in February of 2014.
In 2013-14 was the second year for a new program with the Chamber of Commerce to provide a
telephone assistance and hotel availability program exclusively for the TBID hotels and guests. In
2013-14, the Chamber was able to refer TBID properties over 2000 times and made 100%
contact with the TBID properties, either by phone or email, to gather availability information.
Also launched this past year was a phone line tied to a specific and dedicated phone number
that serves as a response tool to the TBID’s online advertising efforts and website presence- 1-
12 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
877-SLO-TOWN. The phone number creates the option for a
‘real’ planning experience, namely connecting with someone to
talk to and answer questions. The staff person only recommends
TBID properties through that phone line. The telephone number,
1-877-SLO-TOWN, is a separate line that rings into the Chamber
and is for TBID use only. During the first year of the program,
119 calls were received. Increased visibility of the phone number
and greater market penetration has generated significantly more usage; the line received 479
calls through the end of the fiscal year.
The City of San Luis Obispo has contributed to the marketing efforts of the
San Luis Obispo County VCB now Visit San Luis Obispo County for many
years. Traditionally, this payment came out of the Community Promotions
program overseen by the Promotional Coordinating Committee. Due to the
changes within Community Promotions since the creation of the TBID, the
Visit San Luis Obispo County funding shifted to the TBID because of the Visit
San Luis Obispo County’s marketing efforts promote the County of San Luis
Obispo as a tourist destination. In addition, since 2009-10 fiscal year, the
TBID Board has covered the expense of all membership dues for San Luis Obispo lodging
properties in order to create equal membership benefits for all San Luis Obispo hotels. The TBID
Board leverages the partnership with Visit San Luis Obispo County to promote San Luis Obispo
on a national and international level- beyond the local and state reach the TBID’s marketing plan
focus to achieve. The TBID’s investment in Visit San Luis Obispo County is also encompasses
group sales, film commission, countywide public relations, and countywide special events (like
Restaurant Month, Wine Month, Savor the Central Coast).
Tradeshows
In 2013-14, the TBID continued the participation in two consumer
shows, the Los Angeles and the San Francisco Travel and Adventure
Shows. With the historic success of the participation in those shows,
the TBID Board approved the participation in the new San Diego
Travel and Adventure Show. All three shows were a great success with
32,000 people attending the Los Angeles show, 16,000 visiting San
Francisco, and nearly 13,000 at the new San Diego based show. In
addition to the direct contact made at the booth to excite people
about travelling to San Luis Obispo, staff promoted upcoming events,
the ShareSLO campaign and blog, and distributed hotel and
destination information. This year the TBID also partnered with Hearst
Castle which generated increase interest in the booth. In total, the
three shows garnered nearly 2,500 new subscribers to the newsletter.
Events Promotion
In 2013-14, the TBID invested in several high profile events and provided the seed money
needed to establish them in San Luis Obispo. One of the stipulations for funding is exclusivity for
13 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
San Luis Obispo lodging and the events are required to actively promote stays in TBID member
hotels.
Jazz Festival – May 17, 2014
In May 2014, the first annual SLO Jazz Festival was hosted in
Mission Plaza. This particular event had been in development for
multiple years; however lack of funding had made it impossible to
produce. Based on the organizers response to the TBID’s request
throughout those previous years, in 2014 the event was finally held
for the first time. The event attracted over 1500 attendees of which over 17% were from out of
the area. In addition the event generated $1.5 million in economic impact.
SLO Marathon – April 25-27, 2014
The San Luis Obispo Marathon, half
marathon and 5K had another
exceptional year in 2014. The event
continues to make a national
presence in the running industry and
is on the list of many runners as
“must do” race. Race weekend saw nearly 4300 athletes participate in five races. The 2014
Economic Impact for the community was $3.28 Million. Over three years, the SLO Marathon has
created $8.49 Million in Economic Impact. In a survey conducted of 2014 participants, 92% rated
the SLO Marathon very good or outstanding and 92% would recommend the race to their
friends. Also, 60% of respondents said they will very likely or definitely be back on a vacation
and 88% said they would recommend San Luis Obispo as a place to visit to their friends. Once
again, the San Luis Obispo Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K had impressive demographics with
60% Out-of-Market vs 40% In-Market Participation.
SLO Wine’s Roll Out the Barrels – June 19-23 2014
This was the second year the TBID has partnered with SLO Wine Country Association for the Roll
Out the Barrels event. The purpose of the partnership was to establish lodging promotions with
SLO Wine for San Luis Obispo hotels as well as provide SLO Wine the much needed funding to
expand the event advertising outside the area. In total the event attracted 1881 attendees and
about 30% were from out of the area. The survey results show that attendees from outside the
area attendee 3 events on average and stayed on average 3 nights in the area. Based on the Stay
in SLO $20 discount ticket promotion, 87 ticket packages were sold and approximately 130 track
able room nights were consumed at SLO TBID hotels.
Additional Events Promotion Support was given to the following Events:
SLO Concours
Cal Poly Open House
Remnants of the Past Vintage Show in November of 2013
14 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
Sunset SAVOR the Central Coast
Central Coast Railroad Festival
2013-14 Data Comparison
Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) 2007 - 2014
TOT 2013-14 versus 2012-13
$-
$1,000,000
$2,000,000
$3,000,000
$4,000,000
$5,000,000
$6,000,000
$7,000,000
2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14
$-
$100,000
$200,000
$300,000
$400,000
$500,000
$600,000
$700,000
$800,000
2012-13
2013-14
15 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
Occupancy 2012-13 and 2013-14
Average Daily Rate (ADR) 2012-13 versus 2013-14
0 20 40 60 80 100
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2013-14
2012-13
$- $20.00 $40.00 $60.00 $80.00 $100.00 $120.00 $140.00 $160.00
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2013-14
2012-13
16 TBID Annual Report 2013-14
2013-14 Financial Statement
Time Frame Amount
TBID Budget July 2013- June 2014 $1,020,000
2012-13 Carry-Over /Excess Revenue $104,098
Fund Balance $100,000
Total Budget Fiscal Year 2013-14 $1,224,098
Expenditure 2013-14
Rosetta Contract July 2013- June 2014 $600,000
SLO County VCB July 2013- June 2014 $104,997
Chamber of Commerce July 2013- June 2014 $ 25,000
STR Report $1,250
Central Coast Tourism Council $610
CA State Visitors Guide $2,500
Events Promotion $179,500
Tradeshows/ Conferences $ 27,500
Partnerships – Cal Poly, Nature Corps $ 103,500
Marketing/Advertising/Special Projects $20,789
City Administration/ Tourism Manager $100,500
Booking Engine- Helium $18,500
Strategic Plan Contractor/Expenses $25,000
Total Expenditure $1,209,646