Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Marketing Committee 03/16/2004CALM DESERT MARKETING COMMITTEE MINUTES TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2004 2:00 P.M. ADMINISTRATIVE CONFERENCE ROOM I. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Ray Rodriguez called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Members Present: Emily Bird Norine Bowen Melinda Byrd Rick Darius Ric Mandelbaum Ray Rodriguez Michael Shimer Others Present: Robert Spiegel Jean Benson Sheila Gilligan Kristy Kneiding Donna Gomez Piper Close Mike Osgood, Desert Willow Tim Sullivan, Marriott Desert Springs Resort Mike Fife, Palm Springs Desert Resorts Gary Sherwin, Palm Springs Desert Resorts III. SWEARING IN OF COMMITTEE MEMBER City Clerk Rachelle Klassen administered the swearing in of Norine Bowen and gave to her Conflict of Interest information and forms, which she asked be completed and returned. MARKETING COMMITTEE MINUTES MARCH 16, 2004 PAGE 2 IV. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. V. CONSENT CALENDAR Motion was made by Norine Bowen to approve the January 13, 2004 and February 10, 2004, meeting minutes. Ric Mandelbaum seconded the motion, which was carried by a unanimous vote. VI. NEW BUSINESS A. PRESENTATION BY TIM SULLIVAN, MARRIOTT DESERT SPRINGS RESORT Chairman Ray Rodriquez introduced Tim Sullivan. Sheila Gilligan said the Marketing Committee had the opportunity to have Gary Sherwin, from Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention & Visitors Authority (CVA), speak regarding the role of the CVA. She believed it was now appropriate for the Committee to embrace Tim Sullivan for accepting the invitation to discuss the importance of the relationship between the CVA and the Marriott Desert Springs Resort. Tim Sullivan felt it would be more effective if he and the Committee members have a dialogue regarding his experience with the CVA and their efforts in assisting the Marriott in their marketing plan. Mr. Sullivan stated he is a big proponent of the CVA for a variety of reasons. It is beneficial to the Marriott to have destination representation in the market. The people selling for Marriott are selling dozens and dozens of hotels covering Orlando through San Francisco, San Diego through Hawaii. The CVA partners with the Marriott Desert Springs to represent the destination. When the CVA speaks with groups they usually discuss the greater Palm Springs area. Once that group or convention is convinced that this is where they want to be, we then can work on bringing them to Marriott Desert Springs in Palm Desert. He realized that the core of this discussion was what does a city or organization do with scarce resources. His objective was to tell the Committee what CVA does for the Marriott Desert Springs Resort and, therefore, what it does for the City. Mr. Sullivan discussed information regarding the programs and/or conferences that the CVA has assisted with booking, or have led them towards the booking. The listings included only those conferences that they worked with the CVA on and felt very strongly that they would not have booked the conference without the assistance of the CVA. He wanted to make MARKETING COMMITTEE MINUTES MARCH 16, 2004 PAGE 3 it clear that he was not present to be an advocate for the CVA; he is an advocate for Marriott Desert Springs. His direction to his team was to keep the figures conservative. The Marriott booked 38,000 room nights at an average rate of $175.00 and those numbers were very conservative, possibly 10 to 15 percent. If you take the room nights times the rate, it totals $6.7 million. What that dollar amount does not account for is the other money spent in the hotel. For every dollar that a guest spends on a room they spend between $2.00 and $3.00 outside of the room in the Marriott resort. Mr. Sullivan stated that at this point and time if the decision is made to not employ the CVA on their behalf, it would be devastating. He felt, in his opinion, it would cause inordinate and unnecessary short term, medium term, and possibly long term Toss. Mr. Sullivan has been pleased with the responsiveness and immediate attention he receives and has received from the CVA. He said if the Marriott Desert Springs is fully booked it benefits the City. Ms. Gilligan said she was impressed by the statistical information gathered by Mr. Sullivan's sales team. She felt there was comparison information that was important for the Committee to see. Mayor Spiegel said that the Marriott Desert Springs Resort is the number one revenue source for the City of Palm Desert, and it would be devastating to the City if the Marriott Desert Springs did not exist and he felt everyone knew that. Mike Fife from the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention and Visitors Authority (CVA) passed out information regarding the Convention Bookings, Marketing Programs, and Marketing Initiatives for the Marriott Desert Springs Resort. The information presented to the Marketing Committee was confidential. Mr. Fife gave a summary of that information. Chairman Rodriguez asked Mr. Sullivan how many sales people the Marriott had? Mr. Sullivan said they share a sales team of 12 with the Marriott Rancho las Palmas. They also have a cadre of six people, which handle reactive sales. The sales teams are divided into geographical areas. International sales teams work predominately with individuals or wholesalers, but it is not convention or group business. The CVA works with Marriott on convention sales. Chairman Rodriguez asked Mr. Sullivan if the CVA is supplementing their sales force. Mr. Sullivan said every market of convention sales they partner with the CVA. The CVA has a budget three to four times larger than the Marriott's budget. We never think that because we have a CVA sales office in Washington, D.C. then we don't have to worry about that market MARKETING COMMITTEE MINUTES MARCH 16, 2004 PAGE 4 because the reality is we are selling the destination, we are selling the hotel. The CVA is selling Palm Springs so the Marriott has to be there to say to them come to the Desert Springs Marriott in Palm Desert. If you benchmark the sales organization against the Marriott in Orlando, Phoenix or San Diego, the staffing level is comparable and they look to the CVA to generate new leads, but they primarily look to them to assist them in both businesses. Chairman Rodriguez said he attended a function that the CVA hosted last month at Augusta and learned that other hotel sales forces in other states are supplemented by a statewide effort. He asked Mr. Fife or Mr. Sherwin to go over what that means. Mr. Sherwin said California traditionally has either a feast or famine approach to promoting tourism to the State. The reality is California has gone through times when it has had zero dollars to go towards promoting tourism and other states like Florida that spend upwards of $40 million or in the case of Las Vegas spend upwards to $160 million dollars. The California Legislature has eliminated all public funding for tourism promotion because of the State's budget crisis. Five years ago the industry told the State they would assess themselves. The Marriott contributes by adding a surcharge on the bill, which gets passed onto the guest that allows that money to go into a kitty that then gets returned to the State. That amounts to another $7.5 million coming from private industry that promotes tourism to the State of California. When California eliminated all public funding, that left $7.5 million of private industry money that is promoting the State. Right now the private industry is doing all the tourism promotion for the State of California. That $7.5 million is governed by a group called the "California Travel and Tourism Commission" many of whom are appointed at the pleasure of the Governor. Our representative is Mr. Fife because they have appointed regional people as well as industry specific people. Right now we are struggling with a $7.5 million budget and there is not nearly enough money to do what we need to do. He felt the great irony is that Governor_ Schwarzenegger has filmed a commercial promoting travel and tourism to California, but the State does not have the money to run the promotion. The bottom line is that with the State not being able to contribute, this means more responsibility falls at the local level. Federal government used to have an international and domestic tourism promotion called "The United States Travel and Tourism Connection" which was eliminated in 1991. Florida raises tourism money through car rental surcharges. This was tried in California but the car rental companies did not want to do that. Mr. Fife said they share information with other CVA's around the country. They have reports that give information that hotels need to MARKETING COMMITTEE MINUTES MARCH 16, 2004 PAGE 5 know. The sophisticated meeting planner in the association market is producing RFPs and forwarding them to the CVA, which they attach to the sales leads given to the hoteliers. The CVA has taught the meeting planner how to drive the rate down, which is unfortunate, but that is what has been happening the last couple of years. There is an increase in occupancy and for the most part there is no stabilization of rate. This will continue through 2004. Mayor Spiegel said the Marriott has nice convention facilities but they are not large enough so, consequently, a lot of large groups will go to Palm Springs to a convention center. The International Conference Shopping Centers Union used to meet at the Marriott every September and they would fill up the hotel. However, they are now too large so they left and went to Palm Springs. He believes that happens quite a bit. Mr. Fife said that 80% of the people who visit here book here. There are a lot of people who don't know about us and who have never been here. The CVA has familiarization tours. They currently buy airfare to get them here. They take them around to the communities. The Marriott will house and feed them and offer golf. It is great exposure. What we find is the return on those trips is much higher. The CVA used to have a golf tournament wherein they brought meeting planners into Palm Desert. The cost became too exorbinate. They believe there will be more booked business from familiarization tours than the golf tournament. Mr. Sullivan said the two biggest obstacles they have in booking business is airlift, both perceived and real, even though airlift has gotten materially better into Palm Springs over the past couple of years. It is still not comparable to the destinations in which we compete, but it is much better than it was. The second one is the idea of meeting space. How do you get to the point where you can get a conference to come to your city and have 3000 rooms booked. As things are right now, the Marriott can host 1,700 people for dinner, and handle a group of 800 on a peak night. We are trying to fill other hotel rooms with overflow. The way to do that successfully is to begin to figure out how to get big groups here. As we go forth, and if we had a magic wand, those are the two things that would really change the nature of our destination and enable us to compete much more vigorously. He felt that the idea of co - branding Palm Desert along with Palm Springs was an important and relative initiative. He said they have to be able to go to conference planners in Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York and say, "this is the reason to come to Palm Desert." "Here is what we have to offer." "We have this unbelievable meeting space, we can get you here with reasonable ease, and we MARKETING COMMITTEE MINUTES MARCH 16, 2004 PAGE 6 have 3,000 first class hotel rooms for you to choose from while you are in town." That would be sweet. Chairman Rodriguez asked if there was anything the Marketing Committee needs to be aware of so they can better participate in the process. Mr. Fife said the destination is key. When the CVA brings people to Palm Desert they are blown away. They like the city, the hotels, the view, and the vistas. From a product standpoint there is not very much that could be done better. He felt these types of forums between the CVA and the Marketing Committee were imperative for discussing marketing strategies and talk about how they can promote Palm Desert along with Palm Springs. Also, if there was a way to communicate effectively with people regarding this destination, it would help them. Ms. Gilligan asked if Mr. Fife could talk about their offices in London and France. Mr. Fife said Mr. Sherwin oversees both of those offices. There are three regions that produce most of the visitations to California... Germany, Japan, and London. The international offices work with tour wholesalers, tour operators, and large travel agencies trying to get them to include the Palm Springs Desert Resorts in their product offerings. The CVA trade reps work to get this done. The other thing they do is public relations to get the consumer informed of the destination. Mr. Sherwin went to Palm Springs airport and asked Delta to adjust their schedule by just a couple of hours so as to allow the inbound flights from London and Germany to land at Hartsfield Airport and make the connection on the Delta flight from Atlanta to Palm Springs. Since that was done, according to Delta, on an average day there are at least 40 passengers originating from Germany or London coming into this market. Normally we assume these people are only coming during the summer, they are now coming year round. They are primarily here during the summer, but we are seeing them more on an annual basis. Those hotels that really work the market get a huge amount of market share. Any guest that stays Monday through Friday in the summer is a welcomed guest. Mr. Fife did not want anyone walking out of the meeting, crunching the numbers, looking at page two, and saying we just generated $700,000 in direct return to the City, but didn't we invest $900,000? What the City needs to know is that they received $600,000 back just from Marriott Desert Springs, just in group business; none of the other hotels are included and nothing related to the individual visitor is included in those calculations. Chairman Rodriguez said it extends beyond that. When you are looking at a $6.8 million number, you are looking at salaries for people who live here. MARKETING COMMITTEE MINUTES MARCH 16, 2004 PAGE 7 Ms. Gilligan asked what constitutestlFi eon hsaid thereotel and hs a ow does a hotel qualify as a convention hotel? Mr definition for a convention hotel. One salesdwho esred enot-fa General a person dedicated to convention Manager, and you must have rathatting ace. wantto There are some considered a hotels that do not fit those parametersyou do not convention hotel. Unless you it awants to allow a hotea convention l that doesn't get CVA's-sales leads. If a Y can, if the City meet the parameters to a a then the convent City hnveion lststhey at a higher rate. chooses. If they cho , Right now the City invests 1.4% of gross hotel hotels. And then if you for convention hotels and 8/10 of 1 /° for non -convention. to belong to are a convention hotel you also pay a membership fee the CVA. If you are a non -convention hotel you do not pay a membership fee. Mayor Spiegel asked what percentage of the Dtt's rooms is are individual individual vs. groups? Mr. Sullivan said 30% to 35% and the rest are groups. That is a real onutt mber.He 95,000was telling Ms. ual Gilligan and Mr. Fife t20,000 over the r the last three years. Palm travelers, which is uppopular weekend, holiday Springs has become an even more pop getaway. Mayor Spiegel was surprised and thought that groups would be larger. Mr. Sullivan tron a'd it drive in.been a recent Muchof it is from development that we have had9 Memorial Day and Fourth of July weekends. Mayor Spiegel asked where do we go from thehere? Ms. budget Gilligan t said the Marketing Committee would discus meeting. At that time, the Committee will take an action and make a recommendation to the City Council. The e6City NCouncil Gilligan felt this with the CVA at a study session on Marchttee has whole overview by the CVA to the a mrDesertCommShe'felt they bould incredibly valuable to the City of P now take it forward to the City Council 'th a much more began this processed opinion and recommendation than beforethey Mr. Fife expressed a desire to always be free C t attend their Marketing Committee meetings and provide Y marketing plan at the beginning of the year. Wecouldin d then identify areas that we may be able to worktogether, r, the advertising. Attending the Marketing meetings could also prove to be informational to them as well. MARKETING COMMITTEE MINUTES MARCH 16, 2004 PAGE 8 B. CHOOSE A DATE FOR DUANE KNAPP'S BRAND PROMISE DISCUSSION On March 24, 2004, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00Duane e Marketing pp will be presenting his Brand Promise information to would like each of the Committee. Ms. Gilligan said Mr. Knapp Marketing members to read the first eet ne chapters of his book "The Brand Mindset" and come to the m g with the thoughtprocess of what are our perceptions of Palm Doesert? How do brag about Pal /m Desert? e want to sell our destination, how do we want What one attribute does Palm Desert possess and how do we brand that? C. REVIEW OF VACATION PLANNER Donna Gomez said the current eaC'{1O woulder has liketo been entertainsa for about three years, and Yould redesign. She explained how the Visitor the might want Planner. There were a couple of things the Committee to consider in their comments, one being the size of the planner, the information, content, and photography. When looking at the redesign there should also be consideration on golf properties, that are requested, i.e., information shopping opportunities, and dining guide. Kristy Kneiding said the Vacation Planner has been through a number of changes since its inception. what we have todayr�hM ing o from the size of a No. 10 envelope Kneiding would like suggestions from the Committee. Ms. Gilligan gave the history of the Promotion Committee's thought processes about the distribution of a $30 acatiOOOobudgetntemn Planer, l.for e., turnaround, postage, etc. There postage. Ric Mandelbaum asked if the CD was still in existence and if so, does it get sent out in addition totheVacation the Vacation separately? Ms. Kneiding said they go out with Planner. Ms. Close said they also �bsaid he felt the CD was ilize the CD in the postcard series that are sent out. Mr. Mandaum to a great concept. He asked if the postcardscould °uletthem out tobe e the the Committee. Ms. Kneiding said she9 Committee along with the CD. Melinda Byrd said she felt the Vacation Planner needs updated photography, and from a shopping standpoint, there are many more new stores that could be advertised in the planner. She also felt the photograph of the McCallum could MARKETING COMMITTEE MINUTES MARCH 16, 2004 PAGE 9 Rick Darius said he could provide more photographs of the McCallum. Ms. Byrd said Westfield Shoppingtown could be advertised differently. Mr. Mandelbaum suggested advertising Tiffany and other stores that would have a big impact. Ms. Kneiding mentioned if anyone had photographs they would like to contribute to the planner, they would be welcomed. Norine Bowen recommended that there not be so much text listing the shops but showing their logos. Emily Bird said the headlines could be more simplistic. She personally felt that the Vacation Planner was an impressive piece, and if she received it in the mail she would feel she was going to a quality place. Chairman Rodriguez said another reason it is such a strong piece is the customization. You can request brochures on your interests you get them. Ms. Bird said the map was a little challenging and not appealing to look at. Ms. Gilligan said there could be more emphasis on the art in Palm Desert. Ms. Kneiding reiterated the suggestions of the Committee being as follows: Updated photography; less copy and more visual elements; redo the map to make it a little more fun and more visually appealing; better job on the hotels; and an overall cleaner, more contemporary look. Ms. Gilligan said that the Vacation Planner will be brought back to the Committee in draft form for further review. VII. OLD BUSINESS A. Presentation by Palm Springs Life relative to Palm Desert Magazine Ms. Gilligan said that Palm Springs Life delivered their magazine to some hotels and City Hall this morning. She felt it was a nice magazine and did a good job covering Palm Desert. In trying to get more information from the Desert Sun as to where they were going with their magazine, she was unable to get an answer from them. Mr. Mandelbaum thought if something like this magazine could go out to meeting planners it would be a beautiful representation of all the things that Palm Desert has to offer. Ms. Gilligan concluded that Palm Springs Life did not appear to make a presentation to us because they didn't want anything from us. VIII. REPORT ON CITY COUNCIL ACTION (S) Ms. Gilligan said the General Plan was adopted by the City Council at its meeting of March 15, 2004. MARKETING COMMITTEE MINUTES MARCH 16, 2004 PAGE 10 Ms. Gilligan also reported that the construction on the new Visitor Center will begin in December of this year and be completed within nine to twelve months. Mayor Spiegel reported that Magnesia Falls is open. The ribbon cutting will be in April. IX. REPORTS AND REMARKS A. Chair None. B. Committee Members Mr. Mandelbaum appreciated Mr. Fife and Mr. Sullivan coming to the meeting to make a presentation to the Committee. He wanted to embrace taking on the challenge of helping to educate meeting planners and convention planners about the wonderstthink about. Desert. He felt a proactive view would be something o C. Staff Ms. Gilligan said if the Committee wants the CVA to participate in their meetings it cannot be on the 2nd Tuesday of the month because that is the day of their Hospitality Adhoc Committee. She asked if anyone had an objection to moving the meeting to the 3rd Tuesday of the month. There was no objection. The Marketing Committee meetings were moved from the 2nd Tuesday of each month to the 3rd Tuesday of each month. X. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Rodriguez adjournment the meeting at 4:00 p.m. to March 24, 2004, for a study session. L•ri Wimbish, Reco ding Secretary