2. Annual
Report
About the Organization
Transient Occupancy Tax & the DMO
FY 2014-15: The Year in Review
Highlights & Audited Financial Reporting
FY 2015-16
Highlights
Budget
Chart of Accounts
RFPs
Demographic Profile and Visitor Spending
Officers & Directors
3. About the
OrganizationOrganizational Structure
DMO & Chamber of Commerce
501(c)(6) nonprofit organization
Board of Directors (19)
Executive Committee
Marketing Committee & others ad hoc
Fiscal Year July –June
DMAI reporting standards
Staff of 10 (7.5 ftes)
4. Transient
Occupancy
Tax and the
DMO
Transient Occupancy Tax
1988 Business Licenses funded Chamber
1994 Increased investment @22% of TOT
TOT from 7% to 9% tax rate, with difference
dedicated to Destination Marketing, Business
License revenue back to City
2000 Voter Referendum approved dedication
of 22% of TOT to Destination Marketing via
Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau
2004 Voters approved increase TOT to 12%
*Each of these increases were supported through new
revenue creation, taking no revenue away from the
City of Avalon
**78% of TOT Revenue goes to the City’s general fund
The authority to levy TOT is granted
to the legislative bodies of both
cities and counties by California
Revenue and Taxation Code 7280.
Section 9.8.802 of the Avalon
Municipal Code governs TOT
collection and permitting of rental
units.
Section 3-2.102 of the Avalon
Municipal Code governs use of TOT
funds paid to the Catalina Island
Chamber of Commerce & Visitors
Bureau.
5. A Year of
Exceptional
Change
The Year in Review: Highlights
So long Wayne!
IRS
Executive Search
Marketing Conference
Hello Jim!
New Year’s Eve
Staff Retreat
National Travel & Tourism Week
WhateverUSA
Board Retreat
We also said so long to Elaine Vaughan and
Bon Voyage to Juliet Walters, two valued and
long-time board members.
2014-15
Catalina Island Chamber of
Commerce & Visitors Bureau
6. Destination
Marketing
The Year in Review: Highlights
Marketing & PR
Advertising
Co-op program
Collateral
California Welcome Centers
Media Relations
Tradeshows
Database
Events
Websites
SEO/SEM
Social Media
Film Permits
Cruise Industry Relations
2014-15
Catalina Island Chamber of
Commerce & Visitors Bureau
7. Destination
Marketing
The Year in Review: Highlights
Marketing & PR
2014-15
CatalinaChamber.com
The ever increasing
importance of mobile
devices from planning to
booking
73%
16%
11%
66%
22%
12%
53%35%
12%
2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015
Desktop MobileTablet
8. Organizational
Assessment
The Year in Review: Highlights
Contractors
Weblink (CMS Database)---RFP
Trinet (Websites)
Mix Marketing (Print Collateral)
Certified (Brochure & Video Distribution)
Xceptional Music (Concerts & New Years Eve)
EXL Media (Media Buying)
Renegade Racing (Triathlon)
Whistler Creative (Graphic Design)
Cruise Industry Liaison
Catalina Island Business Services
(Computers/network)
2014-15
Catalina Island Chamber of
Commerce & Visitors Bureau
9. Budget &
Finance
The Year in Review: Highlights
Budget & Finance
IRS Audit (2011)
Audited 2013-14 Financials
Copyright Settlement
Success Measures
Transient Occupancy Taxes
Occupancy
Admissions Taxes
Wharfage
Cruise Passengers
Cross Channel Carriers
Fireworks
Audited 2014-15 Financials
2014-15
Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce
& Visitors Bureau
Budget $1,532,889
• TOT $1,074,777*
• Destination Marketing/Events
$1,142,324**
*Based on audited financials
**Conservative allocations
10. Tax Revenues
Based on numbers supplied by City of Avalon
FY – July -May Taxes
TOT $4,355,497 Admissions Taxes $734,338.00 Sales Tax $616,172.00
Cross Channel Wharfage $2,846,374 Cruise Ship Wharfage $407,766 Harbor Use Fees $277,531.00
Total Taxes $9,237,678.00.
11. V
i
s
i
t
a
t
i
o
n
Fiscal Year Comparisons
Based on numbers supplied by providers and City of Avalon
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
800,000
Cruise Ships Cross Channel Carriers
2014-15
2013-14
2012-13
2011-12
2010-11
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Hotel Occupancy
Hotel Occupancy July - May
2014-15 2013-14 2012-13
2011-12 2010-11
12. Audited Financials
Total Revenue $1,456,000
TOT Revenue from City $1,074,800 = 74% of total revenue
Expenses
Marketing $683,019 Public Relations $86,555.
Visitor Services $166,743 Information Booklets $205,857
Management & General Operations $298,767. Total Expenses $1,440,941
13. WhateverUSAThe Year in Review
Events
7.3 million Facebook fans
7 Million total applications
1.7 Million applications from just the
Los Angeles DMA
44,000 Instagram images
1,365 millennial guests on the island
350 day trippers
2,000 locals @ $5.00
26 hotels, 6 barges, 0 waste
Diplo premier video
Snoop Dogg
Videos, TV Commercials, Adweek,
USA Today, Kentucky Gentleman
Uber Miles
14. Organizational
Assessment
The Year in Review
Staff & Board Retreats
Mission:
To attract visitors and advocate for commerce on
Catalina Island.
Vision/Goals:
Renovate Visitors Center
Visitor Services Hub
New Chart of Accounts
Expanded Committee Structure
More/improved events & group attraction
15. Getting
Involved
Fiscal Year 2015-16
Membership Drive
Volunteer Program
Visitor Guide Advertising
Banner Ads
Features & Coupons
Thursday Updates
Winter Holiday seasonal promotions/events
Committees
Membership, Nominating, Marketing, Events,
Cruise Industry
310.510.1520
info@catalinachamber.com
Committees
Volunteer
Visitor Comment Forms
Marketing opportunities
RFPs
16. Fiscal Year
2015-16
Fiscal Year 2015-16
Budget $1,596,388
RFPs
Visitor Profile/Demographics
Job Descriptions/Duties
Websites Responsive
New Year’s Eve
Mixers (Monthly)
Fixers (September and beyond)
Google
Business tax documentation & shred event
Emergency Preparedness
Serve Safe
Catalina Island Chamber of
Commerce & Visitors Bureau
17. Fiscal Year
2015-16
Directors
John King, Afishinados, 2018
Chris Austin, Catalina Express, 2018
John Eric Hernandez, Catalina By Design, 2018
Mark Costello, Abe’s Liquor, 2018
Julie Bovay, Radio Shack, 2017
Kevin Strege, Catalina Island Vacation Rentals, 2017
Gregg Miller, Hotel Metropole, 2017
Buddy Wilson Jr., Catalina Business Enterprises, 2017
Cinde Cassidy, Catalina Business Services, 2016
Bill Paige, Leo’s Drugstore, 2016
David Howell, Island Navigation, 2016
Ray McKewon, Xceptional Music, 2016
Steve Bray, Steve’s Steakhouse, 2016
Dave Stevenson, SCICo
Dewitt Finely, Two Harbors Enterprises
Gail Fornasier, Catalina Island Museum
Bob Reid, Catalina Island Conservancy
Ben Harvey, City of Avalon
Jim Luttjohann, Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau
Officers
John King, Chair
Bill Paige, Past Chair
Julie Bovay, Chair Elect
Dave Howell, Chief Financial Officer
Dave Stevenson, Marketing Chair
Board & Executive Committee
Tonight I will be presenting an annual report on the activities and finances of the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau. Some of what you will see tonight is duplicative of information I recently shared at the organization’s 66th annual membership meeting but much has been added or updated to reflect the recently completed audit of our finances for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015.
We are a nonprofit organization providing DMO, or Destination Marketing Organization services on behalf of the City of Avalon and businesses located on Catalina Island. We are also a Chamber of Commerce providing member services accordingly.
We are governed by a 19 member board, with one standing committee, (Executive) and others which are ad hoc like our Marketing Committee.
Our Fiscal year runs concurrent with that of the City. We ascribe to most of DMAI’s recommended best practices and reporting standards with the exception of areas in which we do not have significant staff or resources dedicated such as convention center management measures. We also are currently short of one key tool for fully meeting those standards, which is an economic impact analysis that would provide daily visitor spending in segmented categories with seasonal adjustments. Such a measure is important on showing our stakeholders the return on investment the TOT dollars allocated to us deliver back to the community. I will tell you more about that later.
We are members of industry associations shown here and regularly participate in their programs in order to advance our skills and opportunities.
One thing I have been asked to address is to provide some background on TOT and the Chamber & Visitors Bureau’s role in providing DMO services.
From its inception, TOT in California was established to fund tourism marketing programs. Over time the law and legal cases have established the current rules under which we operate; that a City or County government collects the taxes which are paid by guests staying in hotels/motels. Depending upon local ordinances, short term rentals, camping facilities and RV parks are often included as taxable stays as well.
In recent years our tax rate has grown from 7% to the present 12% rate. As those increases were made, the allocation of 22% of collected TOT was established as the funding base for tourism promotion of the City. Specifically that includes provision of visitor services, public relations, advertising and marketing services.
It is important to note, that increased tax rates, not increased draws on City coffers have been used to fund our DMO functions and that voter approval was sought and received.
It has been an exceptional year for the Chamber and Bureau, Wayne’s retirement, the Executive search, my arrival, an incredible New Year’s storm, and very successful NYE ball. We have also undertaken some organizational assessments like a staff retreat and a board retreat. We brought to Catalina Island its first celebration of National Travel & Tourism Week and then of course you all know a bit already about WhateverUSA, but I am going to tell you more in just a little bit.
Advertising Spending: Internet/Digital – 73% (38% Paid Search / 29% Banners / 4% Email/ 3% FB), Print – 23% , Contingent/Miscellaneous – 4%
Co-op program--$111,000 per partner – total budget $330,000. Partners contributed to a digital media buy (TripAdvisor, banners, emails, retargeting, emails, Facebook,
promoted posts/texts, event promotion). Print buy: Nat’l Geo Traveler, Westways, Inland Empire Magazine and a Paid Search buy- Destination Catalina words – non-geo targeted (70%) and geo targeted to S. CA. Print placements were in Westways, Sunset, SouthWest inflight mag, Coast magazine.
Organization specific Destination Marketing included:
Collateral materials like our annual Visitors Guide—quantity 75,000 – (response to advertising, tradeshows, Welcome Centers). Maps/Brochures— at a quantity of 175,000 – (mainland terminals, boats, on-island distribution). Rack Cards – 200,000 – distributed thru Certified Folder to over 500 mainland venues.
California Welcome Centers are now showing our 15 second video in 9 locations and we have Visitor Guides available there as well.
Hosted over 30 media outlets involving 63 people. Over 1/3 were foreign outlets (13). BBC, USA Today and Westways were among the hosted outlets.
Tradeshows – 8 attended including: AARP Ideas@50+ National Event, San Diego, where we distributed 450 Visitor Guides, 100 Brochures – 458 names/202 opt ins; Bay Area Travel & Adventure Show, Santa Clara where we distributed 1,000 Visitor Guides, 50 brochures – 754 names/256 opt in; San Diego Travel & Adventure Show - 599 entries/231 opted in, we also distributed 1,026 Visitor Guides, 200 brochures; LA Travel & Adventure Show, Long Beach were we distributed 975 Visitor Guides, 100 brochures; Fred Hall’s Outdoor Fishing & Travel Show, Long Beach were we distributed 1,425 Visitor Guides, 50 brochures; Seatrade – cruise ship industry meetings with all major carriers; Orange County Concierge Association Show were we distributed 1 box Visitor Guides + requests for more; San Diego Concierge Association Show were we distributed 1 box Visitor Guides + requests for more.
Film Permits—24 film projects involving 38 film days
We have a current database of 114,000 households that receive Email blasts sent 2x per month.
Websites (2)
CatalinaChamber.com – VisitCatalina.org
2.4 million sessions – stayed steady over the year. Page views have increased while
users have slightly decreased. Desktop usage on our site has decreased 20% over the past year while Mobile usage has increased 55%. Tablet usage has stayed fairly steady.
VisitCatalina was created to capitalize on Up for Whatever Millennial focus –18-34 years of age and that url was placed in all AB promotions of the island
SEO – we have 12 existing pages – not spent any money on them but have updated them to be more accurate.
Social Media – across all Twitter and Facebook accounts
Incoming Messages 61,800
Sent Messages 566
New Twitter Followers 225
New Facebook Fans 16,251
62,025 interactions
56,329 Unique users
8,675,286 impressions
All contractors have been met with and services reviewed. From minor tweaks detailed rewrites of contracts, we are closely watching the performance of our providers.
So as I said earlier, it has been an eventful year. Some of the most important things for you to be aware of include…An IRS Audit on our 2011 earned revenue, for which we came out fine, completion of the audited 2013-14 financials, delayed by the IRS audit. We also dealt with a settlement on a copyright challenge from a former vendor.
We have just completed an audit of our 2014-15 financials and I will go over highlights in a minute. The City Manager’s office is in receipt of those audited financials and received them in accordance with the annual reporting deadline of September 1.
Please take note of the fact that we received just over $1 million from TOT for the fiscal year just ended, and spent over $1.1 million in Destination Marketing. We also carried the cost of this year’s fireworks for July 4th to the tune of $22,000.
Total Visitor Driven revenues to the city are up 16.1% (YTD May 2015)
TOT Revenues – 25.2% increase
Admission Taxes – 27.8% increase
Harbor Use Fees – 6.3% increase
Sales Tax – 18.7% increase
Wharfage Fees - Cross Channel – 6.6% increase
Wharfage Fees – Cruise Chips – 1.1% increase
Visitation Counts:
On a calendar year basis, Cruise passengers counts saw somewhat of a decline. We believe that is due to fewer Mondays in the first quarter and some cancellations due to weather. However we still ended the fiscal year up slightly. Cross channel carriers up about 5% for the same period.
Our auditors have reported no significant findings or discrepancies. Based on their accounting the chart shown here represents allocation of dollars as they related to our overall budget. When breaking out those activities that are marketing focused we spent just over $1.1 million promoting the destination (including fractional share of management and overhead) vs revenue from the City to fund Destination Marketing in the amount of $1,074,800. Other income and expenses were related to functions of commerce including $4,000 spent government relations. Going forward we will be working from a new chart of accounts that will allow for more clearly reporting all income and expenses related to Destination Marketing and likewise for all things related to functions of Commerce.
WhateverUSA was an incredible success. When you look at the measures recently updated by Anheuser Busch representatives, you cannot help but be impressed and the ongoing impact of television commercials and videos shot on the Island during the event will be huge as well. We also saw a very successful New Year’s Eve Gala, incredible Summer Concert Series and annual Triathlon. Here is the latest Whatever video….
Some highlights of the recent retreats include a much shorter and easier to recite Mission Statement and some clearly articulated goals.
We plan to renovate the visitors center on the pier making it even more of a hub for all island visitor services.
As noted before, for the new fiscal year we have a much more concise chart of accounts that will allow us to more easily track overall functions of Commerce and functions of Destination Marketing in classifications for income vs expense.
We are expanding our committee structure with focuses on membership, cruise industry relations, events and marketing.
We are currently in the midst of wrapping up a membership drive, ad sales for the annual visitors guide and looking at Winter Holiday activities and events that we can bundle into reasons to visit the island. The aforementioned committees offer opportunities for volunteerism and we are just about to publish a new volunteer manual. Advertising opportunities are available to members and nonmembers alike, but of course members receive a special rate.
Budget Highlights
Income
Membership Dues 115,000.00
Advertising Income 230,000.00
Marketing Income 5,000.00
Program Service Revenue 11,100.00
Fundraising Income 99,720.00
Total Income 1,599,346.00
Expense
Postage & Freight 69,385.00
Advertising 253,913.00
Insurance 64,900.00
Marketing Expense 55,000.00
Payroll Expenses 483,374.96
Printing & Reproduction 166,000.00
Accounting 25,200.04
Consulting 34,000.00
Professional Fees 59,200.04
Rent Expense 28,598.40
Repairs & Maintenance 22,000.00
Travel Expense 36,785.01
Website Expense 85,000.00
Special Events 185,700.00
Total Expense 1,596,388.01
Here you see our current board and officers representing a healthy cross section of the community.
In closing I would like to leave with you some key takeaways. While occupancy and visitation continue to rise year over year, we are in need of more frequent and more detailed information from the City in order to be responsive to our business community and the professionals like appraisers and auditors working with island businesses that are dependent upon us as a resource. Included in those needs would be information on room nights, vacation rental occupancies and both harbor mooring and anchoring
(e.g. home zip code, length of stay, registrants originations).
We very much need to meet the critical measure of a Demographic Profile and Visitor Spending analysis in order to address business member needs and to better satisfy all of you in showing the economic impact from visitors to the island and return on your investment in us. A proposal regarding such an analysis has been delivered to the City Manager.
We want to be a valued partner in bringing future large events to the island and see great opportunity to do so. Likewise we are excited for the opportunities increased dialogue with the Cruise Industry holds for us all.
