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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 277-09TO: HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM: CITY MANAGER DATE: JUNE 15, 2009 DEPARTMENT: PLANNING AND COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT CMR: 277:09 SUBJECT: Second Quarter 2009 Destination Palo Alto Update This is an information report and no Council action is required. BACKGROUND Destination Palo Alto, the City of Palo Alto'.s visitorship effort, initiated its efforts in October 2008. These efforts include: • Convening of a committee of stakeholders to guide the Destination Palo Alto initiative • Exploration and development of a specific, actionable plan to enhance visitorship to Palo Alto • Participation in events like the Stanford Stadium re-opening, Tour of California and Stanford Admit Weekend to leverage revenues and "spotlight" Palo Alto • Development of a Palo Alto rack brochure for hotels and Palo Alto businesses The City awarded a contract on October 6, 2008 to the San Mateo County/Silicon Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau (SMC/SVCVB) in conjunction with the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce and Palo Alto Weekly, to conduct these activities. As a part of the contract, quarterly reports are submitted to the City which detail milestones towards the stated objectives of the contract. The second quarterly report from the SMC/SVCVB was received on April 6, 2009. DISCUSSION The main focus of the Destination Palo Alto effort in the past few months has been to create important exposure to Palo Alto hotels, restaurants and businesses. In addition, as the National Senior Games being held in Palo Alto in August 2009 are drawing closer, efforts to maximize the impact to local businesses as a result of the Games has been a high priority. CMR: 277:09 Page 1 of3 Another significant achievement is the hosting of the 2nd US China Green Energy Forum scheduled for October 2009 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. A number of California cities bid extensively for this coveted meeting, with Palo Alto chosen as the winning city to host the conference through the efforts of the Destination Palo Alto team. As a part of the conference, Mayor Drekmeier will address the group and key City departments will showcase Palo Alto energy programs. Attached is the second quarter report (Attachment A) for Destination Palo Alto covering January 1 through March 31, 2009 for City Council information and review. Key milestones in the quarterly report include: 1. Number of leads generated 2. Potential roonl nights in leads 3. Total number of room nights booked 4. Percentage of non peak/target dates booked For clarification, each lead is defined as one potential piece of business or one potential meeting or conference. The number of room nights varies from lead to lead. These can vary from one room night to many per lead. Definite room nights are rooms that are actually on the books, or with contracts in place. In addition, the report identifies the number of promotional packages created, familiarization tours hosted and other important milestones. Of special note, at the Senior Games, an enhanced visitor center team will assist in the stuffing of 13,000 athlete bags that include discount offers from local merchants. The team will be on campus for the event to assist the athletes and visitors, driving interest to Palo Alto businesses. An "extend your stay" piece was created and put on the Senior Games website to maximize hotel stays in Palo Alto. Outreach to all area hotels, Stanford University's Visitor Center and Stanford Shopping Center has been continued and expanded. A number of site visits and familiarization ("fam") tours have occurred including one specifically targeted towards sports planners. The Destination Palo Alto website is complete and is being promoted in outreach materials and visits. Based on internal and external discussions with stakeholders, some changes will be made to the website to provide additional focus on Palo Alto and local attractions. Supporting marketing collateral including a new Palo Alto brochure was completed and used for Admit Weekend in April. The report also includes a detailed accounting of advertisements, tours, online pieces, and broadcasts and other media outreach and coverage since the last quarterly report. Further specific information on the activities to achieve the milestones identified for Destination Palo Alto is provided on Page 3 of the quarterly report. CMR: 277:09 Page 2 of3 RESOURCE IMPACT The first year of the Destination Palo Alto Visitor Program is funded through an allocation from the City's General Fund for FY 08-09. The amount of funding allocated for the program is based on the expected growth in hotel occupancy that results from implementation of the program. The expected growth in occupancy is estimated to be 5 percent, which translates into $240,000. Staff included $240,000 in the 2008-09 Proposed Budget for the Destination Palo Alto Visitor Program. Staff intends for the program to be a two-year pilot with $240,000 for the second year being proposed as part of the FY 2010 budget. POLICY IMPLICATIONS The Destination Palo Alto initiative is consistent with prior City Council policy. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW This informational report to the City Council is not considered a project pursuant to Section 21065 of the California Environmental Quality Act. ATTACHMENTS A: Destination Palo Alto Second Quarter Report April 6, 2009 PREPARED BY: --~~~--~~~~~----~~- Su an L. Barnes, Mana er Ec nomic Development/ Redevelopment DEPARTMENT HEAD: C1~ t}J~ Curtis Williams, Interim Director Planning and Community Environment CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: ~ /.JaI11eSKeee City Manager CMR: 277:09 Page 3 of3 j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j ATTACIDv1ENT A 111 Anza Boulevard, Suite 410, Burlingame, CA 94010 650-348-7600 • 1-800-288-4748 Fax 650-348-7687 info@sanmateocountycvb.com • www.visitsanmateocounty.com Destina tion Palo Alto Second Quarter Report Submitted to the City of Palo Alto by The San Mateo County/Silicon Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau April 6, 2009 Meeting leads generated (Jan.-March): 126, with a total of 39,639 potential room nights and a potential economic impact of$13,639, 729 Definite meetings booked: 42, for a total of 17, 178 room nights and an economic impact of $5,224,410 Number of visitors to DPA website The new Destination Palo Alto web site is now up and running, with the number of hits expected to increase as word of the new site spreads. (Arrangements have been made to notify Palo Alto residents in the utility bill.) The (old and new) Destination Palo sites had a total of 1400 unique visitors and 2000 page views in the last three months. Overview: The City of Palo Alto has benefited from broad exposure to meeting planners, individual travelers and the media in the recent (second) quarter. Multiple site visits of Palo Alto properties and Familiarization ("Fam") tours of Palo Alto have taken place. In addition to individual planner site visits, where a planner is escorted through the City of Palo Alto and on tours of various hotels, "Fam" tours for group meeting and event planners have been conducted. A Fam tour for sports planners-a "first" for our Bureau, and n1ade possible because of Palo Alto and Stanford's participation, was conducted in March. Twelve planners (all with RFPs) for various pre-Olympic and large non-pro fit-related sporting events were shown multiple Palo Alto properties and the City of Palo Alto. They were given an extensive tour of the Stanford campus and met with the Director of Athletics and various members of Stanford's athletic team to discuss logistics for their events. They had numerous questions answered, greatly shortening the process for any future event leads. (Anthony Travel was also included in this Fam to generate new event possibilities for the area.) The demand for the Fam was so great that an additional sporting event planner Fam will be conducted in September. Page 1 In March, as well, a "high end" meeting planner Fam was conducted, with eight meeting planners in attendance from across the U.S. Each of these meeting planners conducts multiple meetings every year, some of them third-party planners who handle multiple meetings for several clients. None had ever seen Palo Alto or its properties or toured the area and all expressed a strong interest in bringing meetings there. In an effort to secure additional medical meetings for the area, the Bureau's medical sales manager has met with representatives from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Offshore and national meetings are being brought back to the Silicon Valley area due to new budget considerations and we are working directly with them to assure Palo Alto hotels are in a prime position to secure hotel, food and beverage accommodations. Several "FIT" (frequent international travelers) contracts were booked with several Palo Alto hotels. One major FIT company has now entered Palo Alto into its database as a "New Destination" (This particular company booked over 35,000 foreign visitors to the SF area in 2008 with an anticipated 45,000 this year.) As the international tour operator show, POWWOW nears (May), we have had a tremendous response to advance appointment requests with tour operators. This is due to promotion of our representation of the Palo Also area. As a result, we will be able to introduce Palo Alto and Stanford University to tour operators and media with whom we will be meeting with for the first time there. Palo Alto hotels have also been included in our regular "hot rates/dates" eblast to planners. These hot dates are also listed on our website. (palo Alto properties are also able to list on cvbhotrates.com. ) While outreach to meeting planners. and tour operators continued, strong efforts were made to fire up the Shop Palo Alto efforts aimed at groups. Meetings were held with Stanford's Alumni, Admit Weekend and community relations groups, to determine how DP A might best assist them in their efforts. As a result, several sheets of local discounts have been compiled (available from Economic Development staff), offering over 50 discounts to groups coming to Palo Alto, plus Stanford Shopping discount coupons. This list has been finalized and given to Stanford's team for use in Admit Weekend in April. (It will be distributed to every prospective student. Visitor Center team members will be stuffing the bags for Admit Weekend and offering help on campus over that weekend. The new Destination Palo Alto brochures will be included.) The discounts have also been given to, and used by, the Stanford Alumni team for their use in grad week pre- promotions. (Participating businesses will be given decals to post in their windows.) In addition, an "extend your stay" piece was created and put on the Senior Games site, to maximize hotel stays in Palo Alto, and customized pieces were given, as well, to the Admit Weekend and grad weekend teams for their use. Posters were also created for CalTrain directing riders to web sites offering local specials for CalTrain riders. Page 2 With regard to the Senior Games, plans have been made for an enhanced visitor center team to be on campus for the event to assist the atr.tletes and visitors. The Visitor Center team has also offered to assist with the stuffing of 13,000 athlete bags in advance of the event. We also opened a door with Bay Bio to assist the Senior Games people in their pursuit of possible sponsors of the' event. The new Destination Palo Alto website has been officially rolled out and is already being promoted in outreach to groups. The new Palo Alto brochure will be finalized this month and read y for distribution at Admit Weekend. Page 3 Media Outreach and Advertising A Fam tour for eight top Mexican travel media reps was conducted in February and included a tour of downtown Palo Alto. Their media kits all included multiple pieces of editorial which included things to do and see in Palo Alto. All responses to media requests and proactive pitches of stories to the media have included Palo Alto. An individual media tour for a writer from Qui Touring, Italy's equivalent of AAA's magazine, resulted in a full color article featuring not only our coastline, as was the original intent, but Palo Alto, as welL The article included a map of coastal cities and Palo Alto. The magazine, with a monthly readership of275,OOO and a per page ad equivalency value of$10,OOO, is one of the most popular travel magazines in Italy. Palo Alto will also playa major role in the national travel media "arts and culture" Fam scheduled for this month. It has been scheduled to coincide with the Gamble Gardens annual garden tour and will include a tour of Cantor Center for the Arts. We have placed ads aimed at meeting planners in: Meetings West, Group Tour Magazine, ASAE Associations Now, Small Market Meetings, Smart Meetings and NTA (the National Tour Association magazine). All have a "Now representing Palo Alto, CA" highlight. Group tour market ads all mention Stanford University and shopping in Palo Alto. . On the leisure advertising side, we have advertised in the Discover America USA Travel Guide (in six languages), which directs readers to website that includes Palo Alto properties. We have also advertised on the UK site of Discover America, which actually lists our hotels, including those in Palo Alto. In addition, we were featured in an ITB (International Travel show in Berlin) eblast in advance of the ITB show. Research has continued through Godbe Research, with surveys still being gathered by area hotels. The Visitor Center continues to assist visitors and to gather discounts aimed at groups. Monthly Hospitality committee meetings have been held at the Chalnber office and quarterly Destination Palo Alto meetings have been held, to ensure all are working together. Please Note: City Staff has been provided with: • (Booking) Pace Report with comparison to prior year (T = Tentative lead; D = Definite booking).; and • Hotel occupancy comparison with TOT comparison (by month, year) Page 4 Attachnlent: Activities for Quarter Two-Benchmarks -/ Continue research through Godbe Research, collecting sufficient data to be used in "branding"/outreach of Palo Alto area to entice more visitors into the area -/ Conduct Destination Palo Alto Advisory Committee meeting to update group, determine progress, next steps . -/ Add new activities to work plan -/ Continue operation of visitor center, other activities initiated in prior quarter -/ Convene meetings with Stanford Medical Department chairs, soliciting info on medical research underway, recent breakthroughs, prospective groups to recruit; availability of expert speakers in particular areas of expertise for use in recruiting conferences -/ Restructure layout of SMCCVB/Silicon Valley visitor guide to break area into geographic sections and begin to address drivers of visits, as outlined in preliminary research results -/ Meet with representatives of Stanford Alumni and Development offices to determine whether additional reunions/functions might be added with rooms assistance from SMCCVB -/ Meet with The Cribbs Group and representatives of Anthony Travel to discuss targeting of additional events by SMCCVB sales team (Anthony Travel was included in the Sports Fam. The Cribbs group was discussed with the sports Fam attendees.) -/ Continue dissemination of meeting leads to Palo Alto properties -/ Update PA area and properties in domestic and international meeting planner Fam tours -/ Continue promoting Palo Alto in all appropriate editorial outreach and responses -/ Continue promoting individual Palo Alto locations to production companies and filming scouts -/ Prepare and submit report of Destination PAiSMCCVB activities to City of Palo Alto as specified in agreenlent. Page 5