Category: Tourism

2008 Bay County Tourist Development Council Strategic Plan

Today at 2pm at the Bay Point Marriott is a public workshop discussing the 2008 Bay County Tourist Development Council and Panama City Beach CVB Strategic Plan.

Below is a link to the rough draft outline.

Some of the key initiatives include:

  • Protect our key asset, the beach
    • Seek additional funding from state and federal sources
    • Develop additional beach maintenance, grooming, recycling and trash removal
    • Work to enhance the overall beach experience
  • Develop Panama City Beach in a year-round tourist destination
    • Look into an enhanced Sports Complex and convention center
    • Entice sports promoters to hold sporting events here
    • Work with Audubon Society to develop eco-tourism opportunities in Bay County
    • Attract new family friendly entertainment venues that operate year-round
    • Embrace a strong special events philosophy to assist existing events, foster new events, and attract additional events to the community

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Panama City Beach Needs more Branded Hotels

Kaoru Chikushi from HVS International wrote a piece on Panama City Beach that was published on HospitalityNet.org titled The Need for More Branded Hotels in Panama City Beach, Florida.

You should read it, but I’ll summarize it here.

Chikushi estimates that approximately 7 million visit Panama City Beach each year with around 250,000 spring breakers and 15,000 “snowbirds”. Again, not sure where the numbers came from, but 250,000 sounds much more realistic that the “millions” others in the media tout.

I was glad to see Chikushi references Panama City Beach as “once known as the Redneck Riviera” and describes our area as being in an “era of transformation.” Signaled by the new airport and Pier Park, she finds justification in Panama City being named the #1 place to own real estate in the next 5 years (the Business 2.0 article).

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Destinations around the country searching for tourists

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” has been swapped for “do Vegas right now.” According to the New York Times, the slogan was swapped for something that had a stronger call to action.

It is no secret that the cost of living is going up in real time. With gas prices here quickly approaching 4 bucks a gallon, the cost to travel is also quickly becoming a huge deciding factor on where people are going, if they are going at all.

In the New York Times article, Urgency Replaces Subtlety in Summer’s Struggle for Visitors, the second destination mentioned as making a change in their advertising direction was Panama City Beach. Peter Yesawich was quoted, “There is a palpable nervousness on the part of everybody in the industry.” “We’ve seen some of these conditions individually,” Mr. Yesawich said, referring to problems like high fuel prices and reduced capacity on airlines, “but never all of them at once.”

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Suggestions for Beach Attractions

Dana Holloway sent me a letter she is sending the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau with suggestions for varying beach attractions that are centered around the family and goaled at being free or affordable in order to attract visitors that want to do more than sun at the beach.

It reads:

I am writing you in an effort to help find ways to improve PCB’s attractions without spending much money, and to help prevent any new taxes being imposed on residents here to pay for sports complexes, convention centers or the like. Please take the time to read and consider my suggestions.

Most people who choose to vacation in PCB are not wealthy. And, in reality it is going to be a long time before PCB is able to attract large groups of people with a lot of disposable income. That being said, it is important for us to first concentrate on providing lots of inexpensive or free entertainment while keeping in mind that our biggest sell is the beach. Playing up lots of fun, cheap beach activities will sell our beaches and make us stand out from other beach communities.

Right now the ‘attractions’ we advertise are still too pricey for the average family. Have you priced what it cost to take a family of four to a local attraction? We obviously cannot tell those businesses what to charge for admission, but we can provide our guests with cheaper entertainment alternatives. An attainable goal for us is to make PCB a fun and affordable place for the average family to come. Rental units on the beach cost quite a bit and we obviously can’t control that either, so let’s concentrate on what we can do to make Panama City Beach “the best affordable family vacation destination in the US” by providing cheap or free entertainment on our beaches for lots of family fun and memories. After we do that – we will see more and more people with lots of disposable income choosing our beach over all of their other choices.

Suggestions:

more after the break.

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Do families spend more on spring break than spring breakers? – Survey Results

At the request of the Panama City Beach Tourist Development council, The Klages Group put together a visitor profile survey to compile information about who is coming to our beaches. The report is on Quarter 1 2008 and is compared to Quarter 4 2007.

I’ve emailed and asked how to the study sample was chosen and asked how the data was collected. Having taken a class on survey methodology in undergrad school, I have some experience with this and am interested to see their reply. I had heard that their study sample was just under 500, but I want to know how the sample was chosen.

The entire study is available for download after the break.

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Beaches Chamber’s Community Board Room

Panama City Beach, Florida (May, 2008) – The Greater Panama City Beaches Chamber of Commerce recently launched its new Tourist Information Center at the Beckrich Centre in Panama City Beach, where the Chamber offices have been relocated. Another new amenity is the Chamber’s new Community Board Room, available to all Bay county non-profit organizations for their meetings and gatherings.

“Our number one goal, as a non-profit membership organization, is to help our business members and other non-profits grow,” says Debi Knight, President and CEO of the Chamber. “Part of the plan has always been to provide a venue for these organizations to conduct their business.”

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Panama City Beach TDC CVB Strategic Planning Process Outline

I was able to get my hands on the Bay County Tourist Development Council Panama City Beach CVB Strategic Planning Process Outline. It spells out where we are wanting to take Panama City Beach over the next couple of years and how we are going to get there. Following are excerpts from the document with the option to download the whole document at the end.

In January, the Bay County TDC initiated a strategic planning process to help chart the course for the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau in coming years.

Building off of the initial work conducted, the CVB developed four key initiatives and potential funding strategy to serve as the framework for discussion as the initiatives are explored and articulated in advance of the final plan. This document includes the initiatives, as well as the notes from the retreat.

In June, a final strategic plan will be presented to the TDC for adoption.

Key Initiatives:

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5/13/08 TDC/CVB Meeting: Indian Summer Festival, College Spring Break

Only 6 of the 9 Board members were present. Absent were Mike Nelson, Rick Russell, and Gary Walsingham.

INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL UPDATE

President Dan Rowe reported that things have not gone as planned since the April 18th Marketing Committee meeting. To begin with, Mr. Jeffrey Wolfe of Multi-Media who was selected by the committee to operate the festival this year revoked his commitment to operate the festival with only $10,000 of the traditional $60,000 financial support from the CVB. In addition, Beach Events who I believe was not chosen by the committee mainly due to the reduced funding requested from Mr. Wolfe, now no longer is interested in promoting any fall festival for 2008. However, a group headed up by Marketing Committee member Jack Bishop is working on a proposal for the 2008 festival and expects to make a proposal and request for funding to the Board at the June meeting. Corky McCollum, from Beach Events, advised that his company was proceeding with their plans for an October 2009 festival, but did not anticipate requesting any marketing funds from the CVB. Board Member Buddy Wilkes asked Mr. Bishop whether his group was planning to operate the festival just for 2008. The response from Mr. Bishop seemed to show that his group’s interest was not limited to 2008. So we might end up with two competing Indian Summer Festivals in 2009.

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Agenda for Tuesday's TDC Meeting – Spring Break, PCBWhiteSale

Below is the agenda for the TDC meeting on Tuesday:

AGENDA

COMBINED BOARD MEETING
Bay County Tourist Development Council
Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc.
Panama City Beach
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 9:00 a.m. Council Room, PCB City Hall

I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER

II. ROLL CALL

A. Invocation
B. Pledge of Allegiance
C. Approve Minutes From the April 8, 2008 Meeting

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