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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Reading File SLO Chamber 2018-19 TBID Chamber ProposalApril 2018 1 Proposal to the City of San Luis Obispo Tourism Business Improvement District April 2018 Guest Services and Media Monitoring Purpose: Build on the partnership between the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce and the City of San Luis Obispo’s Tourism Business Improvement District to strengthen San Luis Obispo as an unforgettable place where visitors engage in a unique lifestyle they aspire to live, become emotionally attached and return to for renewal. Expertise: The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce looks forward to building on our existing strengths including a successful track record of promoting San Luis Obispo, strong relationships throughout the community as well as extensive experience providing public relations and visitor services. Looking forward: For more than 40 years, the Chamber has worked with the City of San Luis Obispo to improve the quality of life and economic vitality of our community. We continue to seek new opportunities to deepen our partnership and further the understanding of San Luis Obispo as an exceptional community to live in and visit. April 2018 2 Table of Contents Cover letter 1 Qualifications 3 Project Team 4 2018-19 Proposals 5 Summary 7 April 2018 3 Qualifications The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce offers a distinctive and powerful combination of strengths to assist the Tourism Business Improvement District in fulfilling its mission and strategic direction. • Direct relationships with more than 1,370 local businesses that represent more than 33,400 employees throughout the county. These long-term relationships allow us to work cohesively with local businesses to execute promotions, projects and media visits. • Constant interaction with visitors in our downtown Visitor Center. More than 80,000 visitors will be personally greeted and assisted in 2017 and we engage with thousands more over the phone and digitally. The center, which is open seven days a week, is staffed by visitor information professionals who are trained to answer questions and accommodate requests of locals, visitors and travel writers. • Productive relationships with the media, rooted in our 40+ years of work in San Luis Obispo public relations. We are the go-to resource for travel writers due to the strength of the “chamber of commerce” brand and the strong relationships we have built through the years. • We have a nimble, responsive PR team, which is well informed about what is happening in the city and is able to capture the attention of as well as respond to journalists with timely information, photography and contacts. • Long-term strategic alliances with local organizations and events that attract visitors and enhance the tourist experience, including Hearst Castle, SLO Wine Country, Cal Poly, Festival Mozaic, the PAC and the SLO Film Festival. • Access to a library of more than 50,000 current and historical images of San Luis Obispo and the surrounding area. The award-winning images have appeared in publications such as National Geographic Traveler, Los Angeles Times, Outside Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle and many more. • The Chamber continues to stay on top of the trends in tourism promotions, working with regional, statewide and national partners to identify and act on emerging trends and best practices. April 2018 4 Project Team The SLO Chamber has an experienced, professional staff of 20, who work together to execute projects to completion with a track record of success. The key team members who will lead the work for the Tourism Business Improvement District include: Dusty Colyer-Worth Visitor Center Manager Dusty Colyer-Worth has been leading the Visitor Center and its team of eight customer service professionals since February 2016. Dusty utilizes his background in community relations, marketing, customer service and retail management to lead the Chamber’s guest services efforts. Molly Kern Director of Communications and Business Education Molly Kern has been with the Chamber in various roles since December 2012, including leading the public relations efforts on behalf of the city for the last four years. In this role Molly works to share “why” San Luis Obispo is a wonderful place to vacation, live, work and generally enjoy life. April 2018 5 Guest Services The Chamber’s Visitor Center is in a unique position to provide the San Luis Obispo guest with a friendly and informative experience before their arrival. This not only entices visitors to San Luis Obispo but plays a pivotal role in the overall guest experience, encouraging travelers to stay in and return to SLO. Through relationships developed with each of the TBID constituents we are able to capitalize on the Visitor Center’s significant face-to-face, phone and email traffic to encourage travelers to stay in San Luis Obispo and match the right guest with the right property. To this end, we are proposing to continue the current services we provide to the TBID. The Chamber provides a hotel availability service that is currently exclusive to the TBID. Visitor Center staff contact every TBID property each week, on behalf of the TBID, and maintain a record of which hotels are sold out and which have availability for each Thursday, Friday and Saturday as well as impacted weekdays throughout the year. This helps guests, who would otherwise need to call each property on their own, easily find a room in the city. This service also allows for TBID properties to refer their clients directly to the Visitor Center for centralized guest services. Since July, 2017, the Chamber has been able to utilize this availability information to refer SLO TBID properties more than 10,000 times. In addition, Visitor Center staff answers each call made to the TBID’s 1-877-SLO-TOWN phone number, which serves as a response tool to the TBID’s advertising efforts and digital presence. This creates the option for a ‘real person’ to assist in trip planning, ensuring that travelers seeking personal guidance have a friendly, live voice to shape their experience of San Luis Obispo before even arriving. The telephone number, 1-877-SLO-TOWN, is a separate line that rings in the Visitor Center and is used solely to refer and promote TBID properties. 1-877-SLO-TOWN is answered by a Visitor Center employee during the hours of operation and includes voicemail for after-hours in which calls are returned during the next day’s hours of operation. In 2018-19, the Visitor Center will be open seven days a week, Sunday-Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., and Thursday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. for a total of 55.5 hours a week with additional hours seasonally at the Thursday Downtown SLO Farmers’ Market. The Visitor Center also serves as a fulfillment location and customer service lead for TBID special promotions using a “concept to completion” approach which includes collaboration with marketing partners by the Visitor Center Manager on the development of promotions, the Visitor Center acts as the customer service outlet for guest inquiries regarding advertised promotions, as well as the delivery of promotional materials to guests upon their arrival in San Luis Obispo. We propose to continue this partnership as it helps maximize the guest experience in regards marketed promotions and also frees up marketing partners to focus their time and efforts on the advertising and planning of special promotions. April 2018 6 Scope of work The scope of work within this proposal includes: • Tracking room availability Thursday – Saturday through: o Weekly email and phone calls to all constituents as well as additional tracking for impacted weeks throughout the year (i.e. Cal Poly Week of Welcome, Cal Poly Family Weekend) o Availability information for impacted times is provided to TBID properties in order to help keep guest in the City, even after Visitor Center hours o Tracking availability for TBID Homestay properties if they opt in o SLO hotel contact information included in advertising on exterior facing monitor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week • Guest service and booking assistance for guests that call the customer service line seeking tourist information on 1-877-SLO-TOWN • Quarterly site visits by Visitor Center staff to each hotel to build understanding of each property’s unique offerings, as well as their needs, ensuring that the Visitor Center team is making informed and educated referrals • Assisting visitors, either in person or over the phone, in booking their SLO City hotel room by booking for them or helping them to book on their own • Up to four activations per year of the Visitor Center on-the-road to assist in tourism promotion at events such as trade shows or at in-county TBID sponsored events, that fall upon mutually agreed dates. If required, lodging expenses would be covered by the city, similar to past years. • Up to four activations per year of Visitor Center related special promotions including: o Involvement of Visitor Center manager in the planning to ensure seamless fulfillment o Utilization of the Visitor Center as a fulfillment location for guest pick-up and delivery of promotion o Utilization of Visitor Center staff to respond to phone and in person inquiries $45,000 a year Media Monitoring 2018-19, we propose a continuation of the media monitoring contract with Cision which allows the TBID to see the impact of public relations work, gives our PR team access to contact information for outlets, freelancers and influencers, and allows for whitelisted distribution of media releases. This is a pass-through contract and, because of the Chamber’s nonprofit status, the service is available at a significant discount. $8,400 a year April 2018 7 Summary Guest Services $45,000 Media Monitoring Services $8,400