by David Chapman
Staff Writer
While budget talks raged in City Council Chambers Thursday morning, four floors above it the Duval County Tourism Development Council approved numerous applications for grants for upcoming events and actions that hope to help stimulate the overall area.
Theresa O’Donnell Price, director of the City’s Office of Special Events, presented two successful applications, with the first asking for $90,000 toward the marketing, advertising and banners of additional Student Sideline Safety Zones during the Florida-Georgia football festivities. The zones, a collaborative effort of the City and University of Florida, offer medical, transportation and telephone services for attending students at the Landing and Stadium during the weekend. They’ve been so successful, said O’Donnell Price, that Florida officials wanted to increase the number from three to six during this year’s game and asked the City to absorb some of the costs.
O’Donnell’s second application presentation related to the upcoming Sea & Sky Spectacular in November at the Beach. The $40,000 sought will be used for advertising and printing of the military and veterans-themed tribute, with O’Donnell Price and others enthusiastic about the monetary impact the week will have for the region. Beach hotels, she said, have already been booked for much of the week and in addition to the regional advertising, efforts have been made in the Kansas City market — the Jaguars play the Chiefs Nov. 8 — to encourage traveling fans to participate.
“We have high hopes for the week,” said O’Donnell Price.
Florida’s First Coast of Golf, a 501(c)6 not-for-profit corporation dedicated to promoting the region as a golf destination, was approved for $110,329 for its year-round marketing.
While overall numbers are down, Florida’s First Coast of Golf President David Reese said the area is not alone. Numbers are down all across the state and in other areas such as North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and New Jersey. Overall, he said, Northeast Florida isn’t faring too badly.
“We’re holding our own,” said Reese, while explaining the ratio of nights stayed compared to rounds of golf played is better than that of others.
Visit Jacksonville was granted $77,000 — a little more than originally anticipated — toward its implementation of an event portal and partnership with The Florida Times-Union. Such a partnership, said Visit Jacksonville Marketing Director Mya Carter, is a media buy and will help put “heads in beds” through targeted marketing and accessibility using an established calendar of events.
“Our goal is to bring people to the Web site and book them (in hotel rooms) as soon as possible,” said Carter.
In addition to the online partnership funds, Visit Jacksonville President and CEO John Reyes, gave an overview of the group’s 2009–10 budget — but not without some discussion. Down close to $400,000 in funding from the prior year due to a decrease in bed tax collections, the new budget reflected a reallocation of group meeting advertising to the potential hiring of an additional sales staff and other direct activities. Several TDC members voiced concern over the hiring of an additional staff person in the current economic climate, but Reyes and others defended the idea, saying getting additional people in the field in a one-on-one situation with meeting officials would prove more effective than a broad array intended for the masses.
“I think it will give us a winning edge,” said Sonny Bhikha, one of the TDC members in support of the proposed budget. “What John (Reyes) is doing will work.”
As an independent contractor, the TDC has no jurisdiction over Visit Jacksonville’s budget, but did request Reyes propose the idea to its board of seeking to add incentives to current employees instead of line item payroll before finalizing its budget.
The TDC also approved its 2009–10 proposed budget of just under $7.5 million, but will hold a special meeting in the next several weeks regarding expenditures during the Florida-Georgia game for bleachers and an SMG payment for the Gator Bowl — passed to the organization through last Thursday’s Finance meeting through an amendment — in hopes to lower those costs.
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