Tourism economic impact and visitor tracking report FY21

1:03:56And now we have Adam.

1:03:57We have the

1:03:58Uh

1:03:59did you bring

1:03:59five?

1:04:00Okay. I think it's all even electronically. No?

1:04:10Thank

1:04:11you, Madam Chairman Fellow Commissioner. Thank you so much. It's uh it's that time of year again when we talk about the great things of tourism and what tourism does for the economy. So today before you we are going to review the economic impact and visitor tracking report for fiscal year twenty-one and I I do want to prephasize this as how this data is aggregated in uh visitor intercepts, face-to-face intercepts at uh local attractions. vacation rentals, hotel motels, RV parks, campgrounds, our lodging

1:04:41establishments, uh retail and restaurants, and also boat ramps as well. Um and we also reach out to our visitors via email as well. So we aggregate about over 2,500 uh data touch points of our visitors over the course of the last year. So that's what you're going to see here. And we're gonna start with some big numbers, the economic impact of what it really means to to to Pasco County's economy. And it what it means is that Seven

1:05:11hundred and twenty-one million dollars was the economic impact over the course of fiscal year twenty one, which is over a ten and a half percent increase from twenty nineteen.

1:05:24Wow, that's great.

1:05:25That economic impact stemmed from over $511 million of visitor spending. And that's visitor spending on restaurants, on gas, on lodging, on attractions, on entertainment over the course of the year. And that's again up another ten and a half percent from fiscal year 2019.

1:05:45All the economic impact and visitors stimulus uh visitors spend in the economy stems from 1.3 million visitors. Over the course of 21. And that's up over 30% from 2019 number. Our greatest year ever, we welcomed 1 million visitors to the county. And in 2021, from right off the heels of a pandemic, we welcomed over 30 or 300,000 additional visitors. That

1:06:16generated about one point four million runeites, which is again another sixteen and a half percent growth from fiscal year twenty nineteen.

1:06:24That's a big number.

1:06:25Yes, ma'am. And the jobs that support. Uh our industry, not only in our industry, but the indirect and direct jobs is over 9200 uh jobs within the the the county of Pasco County, all generating wages and salaries over $231 million for Pasco County jobs. Uh again, that's another increase of almost 38% year over year from 2019 numbers. And again, the

1:06:56what j what Pasco County tourism the industry does for the citizens that every hundred and forty seven visitors we welcome into the county and to the destination provides one job.

1:07:10So we asked the question, you know, you're you don't work in the industry, you don't You're not involved with tourism. How does this affect me as a resident of Pasco County? And it affects you because we save every Pasco County household over three hundred and eighty five dollars in state and federal taxes on an annual basis. So we are a tax saver um and I don't know about you but I love saving at least three hundred and eighty five dollars on my annual taxes. So looking

1:07:41at the return on marketing investment for Pasco County, and this is just our resources that we use for marketing. This is our digital footprints, our print, our collateral materials, our social media, our websites, all the things that we invest on an annual basis, which is still short resources, brings every dollar, every dollar we spend on Florida Sports Coast marketing and advertising. Brings back seventy dollars in visitor spending. So pre-visit, we took a look at the big picture of economic

1:08:11impact and what it provides the Pasco County economy. We're going to look at the visitor journey and how they get here. So who they are and the reasons why they are visiting Pasco County. So 29% of them are visiting friends and family, so 30% are are are here for uh visiting uh relatives. Um 16% are are attending a sports event throughout the county and 11% are here just to get away for a small vacation. The mode of transportation for Pasco County travelers, uh

1:08:41there's no uh shock here that we are still a drive destination, uh so eighty five percent of our visitors are are driving to Pasco County and the other fifteen percent are using Tampa International Airport as their airport of travel. Awareness of advertising, this is a big picture for us because three out of five visitors are seeing. Our marketing effort. So we are capturing that marketing share of marketing and that share of voice within the marketplace of our visitors. So

1:09:11our strategy is is is really focused on hitting the right visitor at the right time through the right medium to get the ultimate return. And you see it here that three out of five visitors were exposed to Florida Sports Coast advertising before they made their decisions on on coming to Florida Sports Coast in Turn Pasco County. How they're seeing us, thirty-five percent are seeing us on uh digital billboards, that could be on the road or that can be on a website or dig or on your phone through social media and

1:09:42also online advertising in our banner ads. So the traveler profile, who are they and where are they coming from? Forty six percent are coming from Florida, we are an in-state drive market drive destination primarily, and then out of market, out of Florida, you can see that the bulk of our visitors are coming from the southern states. But this has shifted a little bit because of our marketing strategy to really focus on the Midwest markets, and you can see the results of

1:10:12our visitors, our 20% of them are coming from Michigan. coming from Ohio, they're coming from Indiana. And you can we we've made a strategic move to actually focus on the Midwest because they are staying a little bit longer and spending a little bit more while in Pasco County. In 2021, the international uh border still hasn't opened yet, so you can see only 1% actually came to Pasco County for a vacation or a sporting event. We believe it is a sporting event because

1:10:42we have the data that actually supports the visitor and the teams that are actually coming from South America. So now that the borders are open. Open and it is tourist season, it is snowboard season, we're gonna see these numbers actually uh start po pointing north, which is gonna bring an extra economic impact and more uh More stimulus to Pasco County. So our travel parties, uh close to three percent um are traveling in a or I'm sorry, three bodies are traveling in a pr a

1:11:13particular uh group to Pasco County and one of three uh groups are traveling with uh with persons under the age of 20. So we are a family-driven destination. The visitor profile, 48 years old. Average household income is just under $90,000 and the females are still driving the decision making in households at 55%.

1:11:40So this is this is very important to to our data and our research that really hones in of the people that are coming to Pasco County or the visitors that are coming to Pasco County that thirty percent Out of A hundred or one point four million uh visitors, thirty percent of them are first timers, which is great. So um It goes into the visitor experience, which is the length of stay, how long they're staying, they're staying on an average of four nights in Pasco County. And they're staying

1:12:10at 35% of them are staying in hotel motels, set 17% are staying with friends and family, and almost 40% of them are staying or are just coming in for the day, spending money, and then returning back to their home.

1:12:24Post-trip evaluation, this goes back to the visitor satisfaction, and this is a huge KPI for the DMO that at a on a scale of one to ten, visitors actually gave us an 8.5 as a place to visit, and 93% of them are planning to return to Florida Sports Coast in Pasco County. So the perception of Pasco, this is just a couple slides out of our out of our um our full report. Pasco County

1:12:55is a wonderful vacation spot. It has everything a visitor could need. It's beautiful here. Amazing waters, beautiful views and activities, lots of sunshine and great water views. And beautiful and vibrant. Pasco County, farms, cows, and open roads, it's just so pretty. So these are some of the perceptions of what the visitors are experiencing here. So you can see that the brand promise is being satisfied, but also the visitor experience is being satisfied once they're in market, and that's why you

1:13:25see a high rate of return. Of ninety-three percent for first time visitors.

1:13:31Is that above? Average.

1:13:34Um it's it's above average for us, yes ma'am. Um we are benchmarking that against ourselves year over year for visitor experience and the visitor promise. Are we satisfying the visitor promise according to our brand guidelines and our attractions and everything that we have to offer the visitor once they're in market, yes ma'am? So that was a 10-minute presentation for a year's worth of data and collection.

1:14:04I I can't say enough about Adam and and his team and I I I know you guys f feel the same. I think I've been on the T D C for what five years now? Five years. Five years. And what progress and grown by leaps and balance. It's just amazing, amazing what your teams does and I again I can't say enough about his team and Adam I mean Adam and I spent a lot of time together. It's like a second full time job. For me, I think. you know, helping out or helping to promote um Pascoal County Tourism.

1:14:34But I'll give an example just um last week with the groundbreaking of Pop Stroke, which is the product of Tyre Woods and his team, which will be built in the the Wesley Chapel area across from uh the outlet malls and Sierra's property. The gentleman there, Greg, which was one of the partners in Pop Stroke, One of the reasons he actually built here is because he was coming here because of his kids travel tournaments they play. And he saw the potential in that

1:15:04Wesley Chapel market directly off SOTY5 and 2 Sody 5. That actually in addition to bringing tourism here, it's actually helping to bring businesses here because people are becoming aware of what Pasco County has to offer. We're such a a diverse county when you think about it. So we're a large county. You l I leave my house. I can get to an Or Orlando in about fifty five minutes without traffic, right? But it takes you about that long to get to the northeastern side of Pasco County

1:15:34as well, because we're such a large pounty. But when you traverse through the county and you go through the hills of Dade City where we're having some of these great cycling events that another one coming up soon, you might even want to mention that. Um and you go to the central Pasco and then you go to the West Side and our beautiful coast, which I spent a lot of time on boating and fishing. But there's so many opportunities for the citizens, not only of Pasco County, but for our visitors of well to come here and partake. If they're at Center Ice or the Wildgrass Ranch Sports Campus or at a

1:16:04volleyball tournament at Sun. There's so many things for them to do in this county. Let's be honest, it's night and day from where what it was, I know, when we all first came on the commission.

1:16:16Yeah.

1:16:16Not it's not that it's a bad thing, but it's so there's so many more options to keep the people here because previously people would come to Pasco County if they could find a hotel to stay in. they would more than likely go to Hillsborough County or Pinellas County. to do their shopping and eat eating and drinking and things like that. Guess what? They don't have to leave anymore. And with the number of hotels we have coming up, the beautiful new hotel we have over the Riagrass Wreck Sports Campus with a rooftop bar. Well, that's

1:16:47gonna drive more people not only to stay here when they're here for events, but it's gonna help our local economy as well because people will go there instead of leaving Pasco County to have the same experience. So thank you again for authority.

1:17:02Mr. Upland. Uh Adam, I thank you for all the good work your staff do in in this uh tourism area and We certainly appreciate and Mr. Moore's leadership also in that, but I keep telling him The reason it's so busy around Wesley Chapel is because he's caused all this with you and your team. So Um It's a great thing for the county and we certainly appreciate but they they can't forget what causes this traffic.

1:17:29So I

1:17:31I remember um A number of years ago over ten years ago maybe uh the Tampa Bay Partnership did this um Survey. Uh about Why? What where would you go? You know, what what's a reason to go to this county, that county or that county? And they were gathering like the top things. The only thing that came up in Pasco County actually was Starkey Wilderness Park. That was it. And they couldn't no one you know, the the commun the area couldn't think of any other reason to come up to Pasco County. So um Now

1:18:02I'm sure if they did that list again. There we may have more stuff than anyone else. So uh it's amazing what what has happened over the last ten, fifteen years and it and it's exciting. I mean we have growing pains from it, but we have solutions for those too. So anyone else? Commissioner

1:18:20Oakley Yeah, Adam you've done a phenomenal job since coming on. Um When uh when we look at all the things the Wyangras sports complex as you mentioned, that was a huge thing that really set the tone of people staying instead of out of county, they're in County. Uh you know, Saddlebrook starting it way way back a long time ago, the hockey ring coming in, Gordy and and Mitch Phenomenal project what they brought in. It's just like driving stuff. Um you know Sun West is gonna be taking up more and more. I I know we got our first tournament coming up. Or not that's not our first one,

1:18:50but it's a big one coming up.

1:18:51Nice.

1:18:52Um you know, Snow Cat Ridge, Hollow Screen, those activities that you can do other things while you're here. Scalloping up and down. Um you know Larry Pendleton who used to be the uh chair of the uh uh CEO of the Florida Sports Fo Foundation, yeah, he always said to me that just stuck in my head when I was on the T D C is the purpose of tourist development is not tourist development. It's economic development. So as you touched on, when you get people to come from other places and they see what a great place this is to be, it's gonna

1:19:22drive these executives to come in and say, you know what, I wanna bring my business here. I wanna live my here, I wanna raise my family here, I got so much to do here, I'm gonna come back again. So everything that you're doing with tourist development is leading to many, many other great things coming on. So keep up doing the work. Thank you. Yeah.

1:19:38All right. Um I think that's it for for you. Thanks again.

1:19:43I will add one last thing that that tourism is the purest form of economic development and every economic development starts with a visit. Thank you very much.

1:19:52Nice.