City Council

CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, MAYOR HON. WILLIAM C. WITHERS, JR., VICE -MAYOR, WARD TWO CITY COUNCIL HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. MATTHEW J. KELLY, AT-LARGE HON. JASON N. GRAHAM, WARD ONE HON. DR. TIMOTHY P. DUFFY, WARD THREE Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street HON. CHARLIE L. FRYE, JR., WARD FOUR Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 Council Work Session March 12, 2019 Regional Tourism Update Council Priorities Website Update The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday, March 12, 2019, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall Conference Room. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor William C. Withers. Councilors Kerry P. Devine, Timothy P. Duffy, Charlie L. Frye, Jr. (5:40), Jason N. Graham and Matthew J. Kelly. Also Present. City Manager Timothy J. Baroody, Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley, Assistant City Manager Doug Fawcett, City Attorney Kathleen A. Dooley, Economic Development Director Bill Freehling, Business Development Manager Angela Freeman, Visitor Center Manager Danela Rose, Tourism Sales Manager Victoria Matthews, Chief Information Officer Suzanne Tills, Network Project Manager Joseph Cornelius, GIS Analyst Gregory Baugher and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Regional Tourism Update. Economic Development Director Freehling, said he and his staff were proud of the way they promote this region but they were always looking for ways to improve on that. In late 2016, they held a regional Tourism Forum at the Riverside Center and it attracted about 100 people. Out of that event came a decision to stand up a Tourism Advisory Council composed of regional tourism stakeholders. After a six month review process one of the advisory’s ten recommendations was to hire a consultant to further analyze the regions tourism program. Earlier this year they put out a request for proposals (RFP) for firms that could help analyze and answer questions. There were seven responses to the RFP and they are close to finalizing a contract with one of them. The process will take several months and in the meantime the Regional Tourism Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) expires June 30, 2019 and it was not feasible to go through the analysis prior to June 30 so it was his recommendation at the Council 1 meeting to extend the Regional Tourism MOU as is for one year. Mr. Freehling said this fall after the results of the tourism study they plan to have discussions on what changes if any are needed to the Regional Tourism program. He said they could ask for a longer term MOU or other alternatives. Visitor Center Manager Rose and Tourism Sales Manager Matthews presented a PowerPoint to show shat regional tourism has been doing. They gave the tourism marketing overview, they introduced all the members and their responsibilities, they also spoke about regional tourism, individual locality responsibilities, the 2017 site visitation numbers, the target markets, the current campaign, social media, public relations clip report, media plan, sales and service overview: market, services, international market, membership, FAMS, sales missions and partnerships, how we market, the numbers, hotel inventory in the region, Virginia tourism Economic Impact Data 2017, Virginia statistics, Economic impact of domestic travel on Virginia for the region, websites and what’s coming up. See Attachment I for more information. Councilor Graham asked if there was a market for school tours and Ms. Matthews said there was and just so happened they were expecting 622 students from Newport News on Saturday. Mayor Greenlaw asked what they saw as a need as far as hotels were concerned and Ms. Matthews said another downtown boutique hotel and a 500 room hotel by the Expo Center. When Ms. Matthews discussed the economic impacts on domestic travel and it showed how much higher Spotsylvania was over the City and Stafford Councilor Graham asked if there was an unmet demand because hotels are closer to the attractions. He asked if the City would be able to substitute the difference if we had a larger hotel. Councilor Devine asked if the visitors know the difference from the localities and Ms. Matthews said they did not but it was important for them to understand. Mayor Greenlaw stated that the staff does a fabulous job. Councilor Devine agreed and she asked if there was a void in the City that groups look for and Ms. Matthews said restaurants with tavern type meals. Councilor Duffy said he was interested in proving this feedback to the development community and he was excited for the results of the study. Councilor Graham asked if there was any traction on ESports and Ms. Matthews said it was a huge amount of money in those tournaments. She said they had a smaller Beyblade tournaments here but she said she would keep her eye out there and try to get them here to look at the facilities. Councilor Frye asked what would be needed in a 500 room hotel and Ms. Matthews said it would be great to have a 100,000 square feet of meeting space with smaller breakout rooms. 2  Mr. Freehling said he was pretty pleased with the new marketing firm Meridian Group and Ms. Rose said they were impressed with them so far and they push them outside the box which was needed. Website Update. Network Project Manager Joseph Cornelius and GIS Analyst Gregory Baugher revealed the new website design to the City Council. They showed the new options on the site which will allow citizens to get information easier and faster. The new website was set to launch Thursday, March 21. Council Priorities. City Manager Baroody updated the Council on their priorities. He said staff has spent many hours working on the documents. He said they staff completed 64% of the priorities that were handed to them in 2016-2018 and he said they would be pressing restart. He presented the Council with the Session Report from October 2018, the gantt chart and the implementation plan. The council discussed that they have never had a working vision before and that the public was impressed with it. Mr. Baroody said this work has been recognized by other communities and he has had calls about it asking how it was done. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time. Mayor Greenlaw declared the session officially adjourned at 6:52 p.m. _Tonya B. Lacey _______ Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 3