TDC Director Dan Rowe to Host Friday at the Beach

Panama City Beach, FL (September 2, 2008)— On Friday, September 12th, join Dan Rowe, Executive Director of the TDC/CVB, at the Chamber’s monthly Friday at the Beach for a special presentation on the 2009 Convention & Visitors Bureau Marketing Initiative. Net-working at the event, held at Edgewater Beach Resort, begins at 7:30 am with the presentation running from 8:00 to 9:00 am. This Friday at the Beach is sponsored by Edward Jones Investments, Comcast and Thunder Beach Productions.

Friday at the Beach is designed to share ideas and opportunities that will affect the beaches area and local businesses. Each program presents community and business leaders in a casual, “face-to-face” setting. This event is open to the public at no charge, however RSVP is required. Please contact Bertie Reynolds or Joyce Kidd at The Greater Panama City Beaches Chamber of Commerce, at (850) 235-1159.

TDC ditches their brains, gets bested by competition

Perhaps this post isn’t necesary, but I feel it prudent to underscore Bryan’s comments and insight into the current actions of the TDC.

An interesting point is brought up, and that point is: why are we just now discussing the budget?

We had all summer with little or almost no activity regarding public TDC meetings. It seems that there was ample time to discuss these issues and more. Is there a reason the TDC meetings come virtually to a halt during the summer months? This is the time we need to be discussing everything and making changes on the fly as needed.

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Comments on the TDC/CVB FY 2009 Budget

As Jason posted, a special meeting of the TDC/CVB board has been called for Tuesday, September 2^nd at 9:00 AM. Based on the Agenda and an August 29^th letter from President Dan Rowe to the Board, I believe the board will actually vote on the FY 2009 budget on Tuesday rather than just discuss it. It is so amazing that the “New” TDC now appears to be engaging in a budget process that has been basically closed to public knowledge or input. During Tuesday’s meeting, I hope that the board explains the following:

1. Why is the board scheduled to “Consider for Approval” the FY 2009 budget at the same meeting when it is being publicly discussed for the first time? While I understand that the budget needs to be presented to the County Commission for approval by the end of September, I have no idea why the CVB has waited till the last minute to schedule the first and apparently last public meetings on the subject?

2. Why has the special meeting been scheduled on the first business day after the holiday weekend? And why was it announced just one business day before taking place?

Check after the break for more shenanigans!

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Panama City Beach Extends ‘White Sale’ For Fall

SAVINGS ROLL IN:
Panama City Beach Extends ‘White Sale’ For Fall,
Offers Discounts From 50 Travel Partners

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (August 21, 2008) – You can still catch the wave of savings at one of America’s top beaches — Panama City Beach, Fla. This award-winning destination on the Gulf of Mexico extends its Summer White Sale, offering deep discounts on weekend getaways and vacations well into the fall.

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Bed Tax Collections are UP, Business Numbers DOWN

Who said the Summer White Sale wouldn’t work? Well, although I was quite critical of the PCB Summer White Sale, I don’t think I ever said, verbatim, that it flat out would not work. But did it? Well, the answer is actually quite a bit more complex than a simple yes or no. Of course, that’s what makes the answer so much fun.

In a recent article, the News Herald reported that so far this year, compared to the same period last year, the bed tax collections are up 3.5%. This is true, additionally I found from October 2006 to June 2007, the bed tax collections were up to $3,953,245.77 or 11.77%. The 2006 number of $3,537,045.14 is up 3.04% from October 2004 to June 2005, and the 2004 numbers were up 5.94%. And because I always hate reading stuff like this in a paragraph, I’m gonna put it all in a nifty table:

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Panama City Beach CVB is Getting a New Web Site

I find it interesting that the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau is soliciting for a new web site vendor. They apparently are seeking to replace VisitPanamaCityBeach.com with something new. Currently, I beleive, Y Partnership is the vendor handling the site development and hosting.

Unfortunately I don’t have much more detail than that at this time, but at 9:30 I’ll be attending a meeting that should tell more about what is going on.

Here is the form that they are sending out.

Update:

I was at the meeting, but unfortunately it wasn’t much more than a discussion on the RFQ that is linked above.

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Should we drill for oil off the coast of Florida?

Technology has gotten so that we can do so with little risk of a spill. With little spillage during Katrina from the Gulf oil rigs, many elected and appointed officials agree. But, I ask, is 7 million gallons of oil a small amount?

China’s rumored to be doing it, why can’t we?

With the cost of oil skyrocketing, we have an immediate need to relieve some of the pressure this crisis is causing. But, would this really help?

With an estimated 5.2 barrels of oil in the Gulf, how long would it take for us to see a difference? Would this really alleviate pressure? Analysts say that it would take at least a decade for oil companies to obtain permits, get the equipment ready and do the exploration necessary to start pumping oil, and even by then, the newly pumped oil would do little to affect the global supply and in turn have little effect on the price of gas.

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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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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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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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