Town Council - Special Meeting

Good afternoon. I'd like to call this town council special meeting and workshop uh to order on Tuesday, March 31st to March 31st, 2026. We have a motion to adopt the agenda. We have a second. Second.

First and second. And all those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. 6. Miss Becker um had a previous engagement. She will be here shortly. Um, unfinished business, consideration of an ordinance of the town of Hilton Head Allen uh Town Council to amend the budget for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2026 to provide for the budget appropriations of the prior year budget rule forward and certain other appropriations and commitments and the expenditures of certain funds to allocate the sources of revenue for the set funds and to provide for separability and an effective date. This is the second reading. Mr. Bird,

good afternoon, mayor and councel. uh going through the second reading of the 2026 budget amendment. Um we did the first reading three weeks ago on March 10th. Um there have not been any changes since that reading. Just to go through a few highlights that we discussed last time. One is the capital improvement fund amendment that we're going through. The budgeted carry forward adjustments is the first item which is just under $6 million and that are projects that carried over from 2025 into 26 that were not budgeted for in 26 that would I thought would be completed in 25. The second one are new capital improvement projects of around $4 million for 26 that have risen since the budget development. Big chunk of that is the postal service site we discussed for the North Point development agreement. There are six land projects totaling $10 million that we went through the detail of uh last last time. And then number four is the general obligation bond proceeds of up to $35 million that was as a part of this amendment as well as the special revenue bond proceeds as well for $19 million which uh closed in December of last year. Uh the second fund is the debt service fund amendments. That's 12.2 million. Most of that is the first payment of the GEO bond utilizing the existing surplus in the debt service fund of around $12 million getting that target number down to uh 2.5 million. And then we have the general fund totaling 600,000 with the majority of that being investments that we are making as a result of the ordinance that was completed last fall for short-term rental program. 475,000 and that's going to cover incremental people cost, equipment cost, and other operating costs. And in addition to that, we've got an update to the fee schedule going from 250 per license to 150 per bedroom with a $250 late fee for

2026 calendar year only after May 15th. That's it. Right. Thank you. Do we have a motion on the table? So moved. Second. We have a first and a second. Any can anybody sign up for public comment on this agenda item? Yes, sir. We have Skip Hogland.

As a former FBI agent once told me, if you want to stop corruption, you don't chase every scandal. You follow the money. Numbers don't lie, people lie. The idea combined with work and leadership of Elon Musk led to the creation of City Doge.com platform, which focuses on financial transparency and local government, not Washington, DC. First, no single person in this room nor during town council fully understands our budgets, year-end audits, and financial numbers. Auditors hired by employees only audit the numbers they are given. The auditors themselves admitted the audits do not are not designed to catch crimes and waste. I uncovered criminal fraud involving Alan Perry alongside his chamber associate Bill Miles who claimed reviewed 80% of a tax receipt and invoices. This statement is false. It als he also attends the chamber ball presumably at no cost easily proven. We've uncovered overcharge legal fees buried administr administrative costs 600,000 funding to dredge Harbortown Harbortown privated community that is an HOA expense not taxpayers. This was also a violation of South Carolina constitutional law using public monies for private purposes that does not benefit the public good reason and use. Same for the Heritage Golf Classic town sponsorship reserved for corporations, not town taxpayers. I demand our city and county councils add independent local volunteer CPAs to all our municipal and county finance committees, creating a simple approved Doge financial committee so that budgeting, spending, and year audits are independently reviewed and reported directly to elected officials who serve taxpayers as their fiduciaries and a proxy. not town lawyers, managers, employees, many who caught engaging in wrongdoing. In short, will you support putting independent financial oversight back in the hands of the taxpayers by the people for the people and make this

campaign promised? Yes or no? These are exactly the kind of failures independent oversight is meant to prevent. Thank you very much. That's all we have. That's all we have. Uh discussion from council questions, concerns. Miss uh Toner.

Um I do have a question. Oh, there you are. Hello. Um and it has to do with the budgeted carry forward adjustments of almost $6 million. Um so you've outlined which funds that that would come from. So I'm assuming this means then we would be transferring funds from those uh categories to pay for this. And so I assume that means that in the prior fiscal year, even though we had planned to spend that much money, we had not transferred that money into That's right. Okay. Thank you. That's just what I wanted to know. I wanted to make sure we weren't transferring twice. All right. Thank you. Any other questions, comments, concerns?

We have a first by Miss Price and second by Mr. Alfred for consideration of an ordinance the town of Hilton Head Town Council to amend the budget for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2026 to provide for the budget appropriations of the prior year budget rule forward and certain other appropriations and commitments and the expenditures of certain funds to allocate the sources of revenue for the set funds and to provide for severability and an effective date. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. So moved 6. Now we're going to move on to the workshop discussions for review and discussion of the town of Hilton Head Island's designated marketing organization DMO fiscal year 2027 destination marketing plan budget and industry metrics. Um before we get started I just want to thank u everybody at the table today. Uh this is a first this is new and this is going to be exciting and this is how we bring things to uh the community into fruition um and work together for the betterment of our community. So, I I I applaud everybody here and having gotten to this point today. It is a new day and and I look forward to the future. So, u Mr. Orlando, I'll turn it over to you real quick.

Thanks, Mayor Perry, mayor, members of council, welcome to uh well, welcome to uh Bill Miles and team to go over the DMO marketing plan, budget, um and industry metrics. I know that that Bill and company have a presentation. So, Mayor Perry, with further ado, I just feel like the floor is is theirs for their presentation. Awesome. Go right ahead.

Good afternoon everybody and well said. We're excited for the opportunity to be here and we certainly appreciate the time and effort. this meeting with the town manager, his help and support as well as assistant town manager and uh being able to bring something to you that is uh uh going to be very interesting and informative. Also, um uh we're what 16 17 days away from the RBC Heritage and what a great time of year it is and that $135 million economic impact that it brings to the community. So, I know that you join me and our team in in the excitement about that. Quickly, I'd just like to introduce to you who's with us today. And uh first of all, I'll start with Andy Mlelen there. Andy is uh the CEO of Verb and uh Verb Interactive. Has been for about the last 22 years. So we're delighted to have him. Just to tell you a little bit about Verb Interactive have approximately 265 uh employees. uh about I think five of those are are based in New York and work with uh other brands such as Starwood Hotels, Bermuda, and Destination Canada, just to name a few of those. So, we feel like we're in very very good company with uh Andy and his team. Also like to introduce Stephanie McGrath and Stephanie's on the front row over there. Uh Stephanie is the chief strategy officer with Berg and she's been there about nine years with them. So, uh, uh, she's been an integral part of our, uh, efforts as we move forward. Also pleased to have Ariana Pernice. Ari's been on the team now for just over a little over 11 years. Ari came to us from JetBlue. We had the opportunity to meet when we were involved in recruiting JetBlue Airlines to the Savannah Hildd International Airport. And the it wasn't if when we were going to work together

with Ari, it was when. and then finally she and her family made the decision to move to Hilton Island. Also like to mention Charlie Clark. Charlie's our vice president of communications and she's been with us been with the team now for close to 25 years and and continues to do a a stellar job. Uh fairly new face but not that new anymore at the table is is our research manager Chase Odell. He's been with us about a year and about a year and six months now. He um uh previously worked at Lander University. Lander was very good to him. He got his bachelor's degree there. He got his MS in management there, but even more importantly, he got his wife there. So, uh, so we're glad to, uh, to have Chase on the team. And then a couple other team members that are in the audience. One is Trent Williamson. And, uh, Trent is our vice president of membership and innovation. And then I think Tom Hens is, uh, there's Tom. He's our vice president of of small business as well as advocacy. And I'm pleased to see a chair of our marketing council there, Bob Cosgrove. Bob's the general manager of the Sinesta Resort, recently uh uh remodeled with large investment going into that. So that's the team that's here today and thanks for giving me the opportunity to introduce them. You know, as we start, I think it's important that we set just a few parameters. And uh uh speaking of which, uh I think it's needs to be said that we as an organization and we as a community and you as a town government uh have always been very intentional about how we go at uh uh about what our approach is to tourism. And it's never been about just more growth for more growth. But it's more growth for economic value and also the value to our residents for them to see that as well. And then you're going to see a number of data points in the slides ahead. Uh but remember that that behind every data point in the slides, the story is so much bigger and there's

a story about each of these and the people that make up uh what tourism is, what Hilton Head Island is, who Hilton Head, who Hilton Head Island is. Um so it's about small, small businesses, it's jobs, it's the community, and uh overall that we have a very very strong economy. So our goals for today, our goals for the meeting pretty simple. It's about partnership, input, and collaboration. And this is going to be a a group uh effort group presentation. So uh as we look here at the agenda, we're going to talk about talk through the budget, our contract alignment, uh also key requirements tied to the financial oversight and the marketing strategy. And then we'll have discussion along the way and wrap it up with uh any additional questions. And hopefully that we'll all leave the room today with one a better understanding of of tourism, the marketing efforts, but then that where we're equally as important is that we're all aligned. Thought it'd be important just to take a quick quick look uh what tourism means to the United States. We all know tourism matters. We we see it, we feel it, and we love it and we live it here each and every day. Uh but when you step back and look at the national picture, the size and impact of the tourism industry is pretty remarkable. And you think about that 1.3 trillion in travel spending. Uh another number there that popped out because I know it's a large number for us locally as well as that 89 billion in state local tax revenue. Uh pretty big numbers. We'll turn the page and look what what it really means to to Hilton Island. We'll see that the tourism economy here means 3.95 billion in overall economic impact uh and uh indirect spending. So the bottom line is one visitor dollar creates multiple layers of economic impact

across Hilton Head Island. When you look at some of the numbers here, uh you know, 49 $49 million collected in tax revenue for accommodations tax, H tax, beach preservations fees. I thought it was interesting that uh uh I don't have it on here, but for business license fees, it's budgeted for this year, if I remember correctly, at about $13.5 million. And u um that which I think equates to about a third of the town budget. Then also on business licenses, we're proud to have a business license and that number is 4633 and expires on April 30th of 2027. And then uh it's important to note that that not all destinations compete on the same scale. And so what we're going to show you here is uh uh how different destinations differ in funding and uh FTEES. And it's going to be helpful to step back and look at the playing field. So this next slide here, you're going to see a clear picture of scale and how Hilad Island, how we continue to deliver a strong results with a focused and disciplined approach. You're also going to provide a look at other destinations budgets. And so you can see from Colombia at 6.5 million down to Charleston at $24 million. You'll also see there the number of FTEEs for each organization. And I think this also demonstrates that our organization is punching well above our weight with number of uh FTEEs compared to other places. I will say that Myrtle Beach is not on this because their numbers are just off the charts in revenue and so we didn't think it would be u of any real great need to include that in here. So, um, the higher the

number, the greater the efficiency of our staff and the fewer FTEEs, the fewer FTEES than most of our peers. All right, let's take a look at the uh the budget. And so looking at this, you'll see that our overall budget for the entire organization is 12,230,000. uh of that uh 3,700 is what is budgeted from the state collected a tax uh dollars for this coming fiscal year. You'll also see there other revenue sources uh particularly that of u of private funding which is very close to $5 million and then I won't go through each of the other categories but you have those in front of you and can see those. the I will tell you the private sector match co-op that is a destination fee that's collected by the hotels and um as well as our private sector other would in involve uh vacation planner group sales and then other other marketing partners and uh programs moving on and breaking down the budget a little bit. you all have had a a chance to uh to look at this and I what I want to point out is on this is that uh there's a column that you'll see there that that uh in working with the Turk budget that was that was uh uh asked for of us. We provided that information. But I do want to note that you will see a couple of columns blank and one of those is the amount budgeted for 25 and 26 and we simply did not include that because in 2025 and 2026 is our budget wasn't in this format. We didn't think it would uh compare apples to apples and create uh

really create confusion. But I will take you to our our audit annual audit which is right here and that will go through category by category of what that expense is and I know that we have shared uh an audit with each and every one of you and then we did not put uh the actual actual to date in there and the reason for that is we're about 812ths through our budget cycle and uh we don't have the uh information tracking on that but next year you'll see both columns filled out uh on the Turk form. Any questions on that so far?

Any questions, Mr. Toner?

Uh comment. So, uh yes, not have the prior year's number and so um and that was one of the pieces that was included in the contract. And and why is that important? Um you know, a number is a number. without something to compare it to, you know, it's just a number and it and comparing it to something brings you some relativeness. And so I believe it's important to see how these numbers compared to the prior year so we can see how has your strategy shifted in regards to what you were planning on spending la in last year's budget versus this year. And so I actually spent quite a lot of time this weekend trying to piece it together, you know, uh, myself. Um, and you know, I'm sure I didn't get everything right. Uh, but it was interesting to see and compare it. And so I challenge you to try to try to do that. Um, you know, this is a workshop. Workshops are usually an iterative process where you know feedback is provided and then changes and updates occur and um I think it would be very helpful if you could uh go back and try uh to do that. Um you know if you want to take a look at how I did it I'd certainly be happy to share that. But it was enlightening to me because at the end of the day, you have $200,000 less in expenses based off of what was collected in a tax. And you know, and and as you look at uh shifts in your in your budget, you know, it creates some conversation. Um you know, so like one of them is the vacation planner. Uh last year you spent 200 Oh, you budgeted. So we don't have the actuals yet because the year isn't over.

uh you budgeted $288,000 and this year um you're budgeting $75,000 because the town is only going to pay for the fulfillment, not for the uh creation of etc. And so I think those kind of message points are important uh for the public and for our town council members to know and understand. So, I'd appreciate um you know, as there's a series of meetings, the next one I think is the ATA tax if you can take a look at and um I understand things are different uh but do your best and if you can always put notes on the bottom about what your assumptions were so that we can have a good quality conversation about the shift in funds.

We'll take it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miles and teams. I guess I should say team is plural the chamber team and also uh is it bird or bert? I didn't quite thank you. Okay, a different continent. I feel like I'm playing Wordle. Um at any rate um so a couple of questions about the budget. The first item and I asked this um when um the local golf organization came before the ax committee and then the town council considered it and that is um it's on uh number one uh 1B golf marketing $100,000 and and I have a lot of questions about the relationship between the DMO doing marketing and that golf association and they were not answered um by uh before the ATA tax committee nor before the town council. So, can you explain to us how that works? Um, and there's a micro site. Do you have uh that micro site that you can display for us today so we can see how that works?

Up the website on

Yeah, that'd be fine. If you could just tell me about the number though, how does that compare with the number allocated through the ax committee process and the town council approves a separate um column of money from this money right here? How does that work together?

Right. So that's a great question. Thank you for asking and happy to clarify. Um so just like we partner with um our event partners um that come before you for a tax such as seafood festival, crescendo um and various others as well as how we partner with our hotel years all of which have their own entity um in funds to promote their own product. However, we come in and complement and we have deep discussions with them to say where can we help amplify or complement the effort that you're doing and so there is no duplication um in our efforts and what we're doing is we're taking base and it varies from um partner to partner taking what their needs are and in case of golf golf marketing really needed the support from the website component um of their effort and with that several years ago and Andy it's before I came on board how many years ago did micro site.

How many years have you been here? 11. It's been quite a long time.

Yes. So, several iterations of that, but we came in and said, "Hey, we can do a great job knowing that we have um the destination website hilton island.org. We can build upon that and the strength that it has to bring in a top driver, recreational driver of tourism, the destination to keep it um top of mind. And so, in that we we do help manage that. We do manage that micro site. We and we manage the digital ads that go out to bring people back to that micro site. And so with that, um that's how we manage that request of $100,000 there that that is used for that.

Thanks for that explanation. I think it'd be good for us to have some sort of report about that because it's been a a source of um discussion and I'm not sure we have the full answer yet um from both organizations as to how that works together and and I appreciate you saying it's not a duplication of efforts but I think we need to see that because the answers before have seemed as though there is some duplication and there's not clear coordination and I'm just saying just based on the answers that have been given before. So I think we need more clarification about how that works. Um, and

I I can build on that if it helps to clarify this to address the level of coordination between between the other groups and the the courses and the site itself. So the micro site um for golf lives off of hiltonhead island.org, the mothership for the destination so to speak. Um, so that commands the authority for all of that golf t content there from, you know, an AI GEO perspective, SEO perspective, the leads that are sent to the partner courses and the digital ads that Ari's referencing that are run against that on a monthly basis. There are coordinated efforts um between um ourselves acting on behalf of the VCB um and uh the other kind of golf partners to make sure that there isn't an overlap. we're not out there buying the exact same thing um and kind of running up the cost for everybody, right? Um so any leads that are generated via that micro site for partners throughout the region are qualified um specifically for them, not something, you know, where they're just, you know, competing for the the same piece of steak on the table, so to speak. That communication happens on a monthly basis. there's reporting to to answer your other question associated with all of these efforts um that are distributed across all partners on a monthly basis as well. So everybody can kind of see all tides rising and frankly the headwinds you know at at certain times of the year that are in front of us all and how we can group as a collective to get in front of that for the better of the region.

Yeah. And and I think it'd be helpful to even go back to I think it was 2022 and 2023 the approval of the supplemental request from the DMO for more golf marketing. Um and so it seems as though the money that was requested there that was not approved came back in a different way kind of backdoor. So there's a lot of questions about how that happened. And I think it'd be very good for us to see how the flow of money and how the agreement worked because right now I'm sorry but it's still not clear.

Okay. No problem. We're happy to do that. And the other question I have about the budget is um under uh marketing support um three I think it's E USCB event research for local events ground level surveying for event attendance and and um and under the agreement uh and one of the things we're we're to do today is to look at the alignment with the new agreement and the proposed marketing um and in um section six 62C of the agreement. The marketing plan shall include specific local events that will be promoted and advertised throughout the year. And and so I I think there's another uh portion of the presentation that deals with that. But I just wanted to highlight that because that's part of the budget and and we in our previous conversations wanted to focus on what are you doing to support local community events and and what does where's the tie between marketing and attendance and that was a critical metric that we wanted to be able to measure realizing that there's a difference between marketing and point of sale but um I look forward to that part of the presentation but I did want to highlight that uh because that's included in the budget and I think the rest of my colleagues ought to take a look at that when we get to that part of the presentation.

Any other uh comments or questions or concerns? All right, keep on.

All right, so uh are you comfortable now uh moving to the uh administrative fee portion of this budget? All right, let's take a look at that. So um uh this year the administrative fee, which is a reminder to everyone, is is funded by the 30% state accommodations taxes. Uh, and we're projecting that to be 1,10,657, which reflects a four 4% decrease from last year. Why is there a decrease from last year? Uh, this year, this year, uh, we're we're projecting that, uh, in this this budget that we're talking about now for a tax revenues to be $3.7 million. Last year they were 3.8 and the year before that they were 3.9 and so that's why you will see uh 4% decrease. This budget also entails uh 6.33 FTEES and if you want to break that down those would be uh three from management, eight from support, four from communications and three from finance uh and advocacy. So you might do the math on on that and say that's greater than 6.33. But uh the way we look at it is the way we look at it is how much time is shared between uh uh resources needs for chamber of commerce and visitor and convention bureau. So as we as we move forward you can see that we've broken it down by uh VNCB management as well as support etc. on this on this. You're also going to uh to note that we have 23 full-time employees at

the chamber and then we each each position is looked at and u uh determined what percentage of time goes to that resource. So in looking at it just for an example uh if we wanted to look at for let's look at management VNCB management there are three positions that are listed there and I will also make note that that in this and there's my my compensation is not any part of uh this budget nor a tax budget nor has it been for the last probably 16 to 18 or maybe 20 I don't know how many years at 16 to 18 years. So there's zero percentage of compensation that uh um goes to my uh my comp. But looking at communications for example, you'll see four individuals that are involved in that. But as we work through that process, uh as we work through that process, it's it's 0.9 that the state accommodations tax is funding. uh 0.9 and the rest of that is coming from additional funding whether it be private or the other resources that we saw when we spoke earlier. Uh just to to give you headc counts uh in in management I mentioned three but it's 1.5 FTEES that's being covered in this budget. Uh when you talk about support staff uh we're talking about 2.85 uh individuals that are covered. And then when we I mentioned communications 0.90 so not even a uh one full FTE and then with uh finance and advocacy it's barely one FTE it's 1.05. The rest of the the portion of this uh when

we're when we're looking at that the admin fee is is calculated. It's a fully loaded uh compensation number. It's calculated for all staff and with a 7% payroll tax, health insurance and dental health and dental benefits and then a six% 401k contribution. And then uh so when we multiply the compensation times the VNCB time allocation figure that's how we come up to the VNCB related uh comp. Then the next part of that is that gets figured in is the uh estimated total of building and operating costs for the upcoming fiscal year uh which is non-comp related. And then we would do the same thing with that by building uh multiplying the building and operating costs utilized by the VNCB and that's generally around 50 to to 60%. I'll stop right there and see if there questions.

Any questions?

Okay. Um, moving on from that, I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at the destination international organizational financial profile. And what you see here is the the fact that Hilton Head Island is putting more working media dollars into uh into the market compared to competing destinations. And so you no matter which category you look at right now, you'll see the red line around the 10 million uh to $20 million. And you can see what our personnel, how our part personnel costs stack up against this national uh benchmark and then how much is going to marketing as well as how much is is going to operations. And so you can move move that red bar any place you want. And we are outkicking the coverage in all of those. So, in other words, our budget's working harder for the destination by uh allowing significantly more working media to be out there helping us uh get some wins rather than o uh unnecessary organization overhead that is not part of that. Any questions on that? I think it's an interesting slide and and not just comparing us to our our uh competitive set but across the nation.

Okay, we'll keep moving.

Thanks, Bill. I think um we're going to transition into the softer side of marketing. Um we've gone through some finances and details of that nature, but how does it all work? How do we apply it? Um, but I think we want to start off with the fact that we spend a lot of time together. We do. We spend a lot of time, um, the staff, the team here at the town, our team, um, our agency of record, you know, we have a lot of time being put forth to make sure we're aligned and we're partnered. And I love this slide because it really does showcase that first and foremost. As long as I've been here, we have really been talking um, I think pretty loudly about the fact that we put residents, our community, and our businesses first. Right? If we don't have that um you know then I think that's where we would start to have some questions but that has been the foundation of what we're doing and you um together we have ensured that over the last few years. Um alongside the town of Hilton Head Island we take into account and often talk about the town strategic plan your comprehensive plan as well as being engaged in the contract negotiations and making sure that we are partnered on those efforts inside of our organization as well. We have our community cornerstone plan. Angie and I, I think we were together when that came to fruition. And so, thank you for that. That was a lot of um partnered effort there. We have our DMO marketing plan, which is an annual plan. We have an organizational strategic plan that's three years, as well as our 10-year management plan that complements the comprehensive plan for the town. So, again, we are layered and in support and in lock step with the town um throughout the conversation of tourism to this destination. Again, we just talked a little bit further here about those three plans for the um DMO, destination marketing organization. As a management plan, you know, we took the approach to the management plan because as a destination, as a community, we have we are planned, right? We're not sitting here as a new destination looking to see how we can grow and develop. um uh we are um mature in our efforts

and this plan helps guide us to be responsible when it regards to tourism and in partnership with the TAN for the 10 years um this runs through 2031. Again, we take those insights and we work through that internal strategic plan that gives guidance for three years. So we are just wrapping up our our current strategic plan and the um new one will start in 27 and guide us through three years and that many of you contributed to that plan. So thank you. Tons of interviews, tons of feedback and we appreciate that partnership for that guidance and then that helped shape our destination one-year plan. So the DMO marketing plan, the one that we're here to talk about today that will guide us for the next fiscal year starting July 1, that's that piece here. And I think this one will go in and we'll talk a little bit more about this on the next two slides. Um but in partnership we held hands gosh Angie what three five years ago I it's I would tell you I was here only for five years so 11 years seems um long but I think it was like three years ago four years ago we held hands as a marketing council and as part of the community of tourism um stakeholders and we sat around and said how can we ensure that we're thinking about what's important to our community important to our businesses and important to ensure the u appropriate type of tourism that we're promoting in the out market that we can have here to this destination. And we aligned on these five pillars that you'll see either to your left or right, original pillars, ecoourism, history, arts and culture, recreation, and wellness. And we love those and those guided us for the last couple of years. And as we went through the new strategic planning process, we together redefined those, right? And not redid them, we just refined them. And the refining really came to how do those best translate when we're talking to the visitor or potential visitor in the op markets. What are they going to connect with, right? When we're talking about interests and areas of opportunity to kind of capture them and and make them

consider Hilton Head Island. And so what you'll find here are two either your left or right is your refined pillars um that are, you know, again echoing all the original pillars. They just have a bit of a um a refined spin on them so we can um put those out into the market appropriately. So what we're calling the refined that we'll move forward with are coastal outdoors, golf and racket sports, culinary and dining, culture and heritage and events and community. So as an example, where what does coastal outdoors have underneath it? It has sustainability, it has ecoourism, it has wellness. So we have those pieces that are so important to the original pillars um but we just put them in a in a way that can package a little differently for the out market. I'd like to stop right here for a minute um because I want to hear back from council if there are any questions about this because it is redefining um th those pillar scopes that that we had worked on in the past. So if anybody's got any comments at this point that would be great. Miss Becker,

thank you mayor. I can make a comment on them. As I look at these that are listed here, 10 in total, the original versus the refined, I certainly um see the refined as having more of a a forward um definition, something that someone would understand when they look at those words. Um so I'm pleased by the redefining of those pillars. um we haven't lost anything, but I think when you read coastal outdoors that resonates um a little bit more clearly than the original pillars may have in their various forms. So, good job. Happy to see it and um I think we're on the right track. Other comments,

sorry, I must respectfully disagree. Um I think the original pillars are the ones that we should be focused on for two reasons. Uh those I think are our community values. Um and if you look at the agreement, our new agreement. Um again under article six marketing plan um paragraph one says the marketing plan shall demonstrate adherence to the promotion of the town's goal of sustainable and responsible tourism in alignment with the town strategic plan by promoting left side ecoourism arts and culture Hilton Head Island history wellness and recreation and this will be the fourth time I've said this um so I I apologize if I'm going to be a a little more blunt. Um, but I said this, I do appreciate the time of of working with the um, strategic plan consultant for the chamber, but there's the DMO and then there's the chamber. The DMO works for the town under this contract. And so I I I expressed disagreement with the refined pillars when I was first shown those. Um and then during a presentation um by the DMO for quarterly plan, I expressed my distaste for it as well. Um and then when we uh the town council approved this contract, I specifically pointed out that the original pillars are a an essential term of this contract. And for me, it appears as though it's not in compliance with an essential term of the contract. And it bothers me greatly that that right away we have gone and I do not see it as a refinement. I'm sorry to be blunt but I do not because I look at the five refined pillars and I go like where does history fit in there? Um and and where does really arts and culture fit in there? Well, there's c culture and heritage is that combining c um

history and arts and culture. Um it it just it you can tell it disturbs me greatly. um especially since this is now the fourth time that I've mentioned it. Um and again um and I've I've looked ahead looked at the presentation that you provided to us and there's another slide we haven't gotten to yet which um talks about strategic plan article 62B and now there only four strategic pillars. So I I I'm just can I say it again? I'm greatly bothered by this. I couldn't disagree more. I think by contract we need to go back to the original pillars and focus on that because we need to measure those and I want to see how your measurements stack up against those five original pillars not the refined pillars.

Other comments I'm sorry can I say one more thing? If you look at um recreation the refined pillar says golf and racket sports that leaves out biking. If you look on trip advisor, one of the things to do that is key for folks coming here is biking and that is not under golf and racket sports. So, um, as I thought about this and during the, uh, preview of this that I had the opportunity to see and today, I was trying to see how they link together and it almost and I wasn't on town council when the original pillars were created. Um, but it seems like the original pillars are more of a strategic view and the refined pillars feel more tactical. Um, and I don't know if there's a way that you can take the refined pillars and show how they map to the strategic original pillars uh so that you can see how the that connection is made and maybe uh there are some missings like bicycling under um you know recreation uh but I think there's a way to kind of marry marry the two.

I love that exercise. Thank you for that feedback. I think um the opportunity for us to do that exercise would be really great. And um just to clarify, I think as an example of why the original pillars um actually didn't allow us to speak at length to all the efforts that we find important from a priority standpoint, we use um the restaurant example. Restaurant culinary was um underneath wellness. And at times that got a bit lost in our messaging when we're trying to again capture a really emerging opportunity for us as we talk about merging um culinary with culture and bringing that forward. It kind of got a little lost in that. So that's a great example of how we could do a better effort with that under the refined pillars. And then taking um not lost but perhaps just explaining where um outdoor recreation such as biking falls currently that would in our new refined pillars would sit under um under coastal outdoors and then we have under golf and racket and we can break this out but those give us deeper insights as to how we're approaching each new refined pillar we have a little breakout and so perhaps that exercise might help us a little bit to understand Perhaps there's um a category or an effort that isn't being captured, but we did try to be very mindful of the fact that we weren't leaving anything on the table, but allowing ourselves to speak to them at a deeper level to the visitor um through the refined pillars.

And I think it's important to note that uh this isn't something that we sat in an office and created. There are over a hundred interviews and feedback from uh u residents as well as businesses and marketing partners. That u is where that came from.

Let me ask a practical question comparing the original and so-called refined pillars. Uh take a half a dozen situations, the lantern parade, pedal for kids, bike ped trails, symphony art center. What's the difference in how you treat those for example between the two expressions of pillars?

Great question, Councilman Alfred. I think when and forgive me I'm not going to recall all the ones that you just named so forgive me but pedal um Hilton Head Island I think is a great one and that's events and events and community and I think that one is a great one to put in there. Sports tournaments, local traditions, family seasonal. So we have really tried to capture and think of these not as we're leaving again behind, but we've taken a way to to reposition for the visitor who is thinking thinking from a visitation standpoint how they would consider traveling here. And again, this is a category for an um an ad or uh a statement to live under, but it doesn't define how we're speaking about it. So we're still talking about pedal Hilton Head. are still talking about and forgive me if you can repeat um some other

build arts center. Yeah. So that culture and heritage and so again we still find the opportunities to talk about them. It's just repositioning them. So specifically, and again I I'm speaking to a piece that you don't have in front of you, but I think Chase, you might have this piece um that if you wanted to share, but culture and heritage specifically, if we're looking for items, it does say Gola Gola Heritage, Mitchellville, Freedom Park, Native Islander traditions, museum and public art, performance arts, cultural chores, and storytelling. It defining that just under that one refined pillar. We've if we've got all the important points in the refined, yes,

it seems to me that that is a practical adaptation of where we are today versus more generalized statements of pillars that were done a year ago before all this exploration took place. That and again I would reo I agree that we have just taken what was an original guiding piece of foundation to help us get to the point where we are today. We're still we haven't left anything behind. We've brought everything over. We're just talking about it a little differently. Becker,

and that really was the point I was going to ask for you to clarify. I think the concern may have been that things are being left out, but clearly by your explanation, nothing has been left out. It's just been re redefined in a way that someone picking up or looking at or trying to, you know, wrap their heads about what's important to them and how it fits into what's available here on Hilton Head would make sense. And I think this language is far more clear to someone who's picking up a document and looking to see how it applies to their life and their vacations. So if you're telling us that everything that Mr. Alfred and and and we've previously in other conversations discussed is is actually clearly included in these refined then I think that you've done the right job. Um, I would like to see the document that's floating around just to just for interest. I don't not I don't I don't need to see it now. Some point sometime it's fine.

We'll get back. That's Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. But but my point is really I is just trying to emphasize and ask the question. Thank you, Charlie. Um, that nothing's being left out and this to me is clear. That's all. Thank you. I thank you for that work. Uh, yeah. To me, it's tomatoes, tomatoes,

tomatoes. Um, I appreciate your ability to evolve and and make things available for the movement of how everything evolves, you know, and when I went to college, I drove a 72 Vega. I don't I don't drive that car anymore. It got me to school, but I I wasn't real sure I was going to get there every time. Um, you know, things change and I think you've evolved with it and and bottom line is regardless of potatoes, it's about heads and beds, right? And how you get there, if you find a better way, I appreciate that. Thank you.

If I might, um, I like how it it encompasses more of the elements. Um, and I think from a reporting standpoint, it'll probably be a little bit clearer um, as to how we're doing in certain areas. And that's that's what I'm looking for. And I and I think that this document that is now being passed around needs to be a part of this this this document and the presentation because it outlines how those original pillars still fall in with those refined pillars. Miss Bryson, I saw you shaking your head. No,

absolutely. I I say again, I couldn't disagree more. And and you know, I'm I'm to the point of having to ask the town attorney if this requires an amendment to our agreement which was signed in December of 2025, not several years ago. And that agreement specifically calls out the five original pillars. And if it was so important to include the refined pillars, why does this document not have those refined pillars that was going on at the same time? I it's just I I how can I express my frustration anymore? Um other than it appears as though right out of the box now we've got to amend our existing agreement to change the exact language in this agreement to the refined language that appears now on the screen. And I don't understand it and I think it's inappropriate and I think I'm going to say this out loud. It is a material breach of an essential term of our existing brand new contract.

I'm going to ask if if uh legal is prepared to answer that question now or if you want to get back to us on that. I'm happy to explain that. Yes, in article six it does state what the core values are. They are explicitly stated and they does repeat the original pillars. As to the rest of the comments, I would defer to a later time to have that discussion with council. Thank you. So we Miss Bryson duly noted. So if we move on, we're just gonna go through and at this point I think what we're going to see through the rest of it. So we'll we'll hear back. Yeah. Yes.

That'll come through um either either Angie or Mr. Bird. Just know Mr. Bird.

Um great. And so we wanted to really make sure that we took the next um several sides to really walk through verbatim as it shows in the contract. We thought that might be the most appropriate way per the contract to walk through if we were um aligned on those efforts. So if you will, I'm starting we just went through the budget which was in article five. We're now moving into article six which is the marketing plan approval. Um again reiterating the um five pillars that we are you know stewards of and that we focus on when we're talking about tourism in the op market. So moving into article 62 marketing plan requirements starting with having a strategic plan. As we spoke about just a bit earlier we have an existing strategic plan. As I've been here we've had one and they run for three years. Um we are just closing out the um one that we're in currently which goes until the end of 26. Then we will be starting up 2027 through 2029. Again, I'd like to reiterate that our organization has a mission to stimulate the regional economy while enhancing the life for all with a vision to ensure our uh Hilton Islands region is a welcoming community focused on embracing nature, culture, and economic vibrancy for residents and visitors. So with that there are um the four strategic pillars that were appropriate for our conversation today in the full plan there are five pillars but that fifth pillar is organization internal specific so it had nothing to do for the meeting today but the four and the ones that we're most excited to bring forward is I think the uh reiteration of just our partnership and alignment is in pillar one so destination alignment community engagement again together we formed formed the strategic plan together. We sat and we talked. There was over, as Bill mentioned, a hundred interviews, countless um surveys and um polls that were taken to ensure this next three years, and that we were

aligned in lock step with not only the town, but the community. So, pillar number one, and this is, you know, really what we're charged with every single day, is that alignment and engagement with the community. Um and so, we're really proud of pillar number one, and we'll chart against that. Number two or pillar two is sustainable tourism and infrastructure preservation and development. So again, things that we're talking about in in how we can support that and and Bill spoke about the different um roles that we have within our organization that do support um not only the things that we get to touch and feel and promote, but it's also the infrastructure conversation. How do we support workforce housing? How do we support um development, but in a sustainable way? Have that there. me if you think you want to add to it. But pillar three, rejuvenate and elevate the destination with a focus on quality over quantity. We've had that conversation a lot. How do we ensure that we're going after and we've defined it as the 250,000 household income or higher. Um, and Chase will get into this a little bit later, but currently 10% of the US population is that, you know, 250,000 household income. So, you know, we really have to focus and continue to punch above our weight class to expand our offseason and shoulder seasons. We have to ensure that we're leading with a strong sense of who we are, sustainability and stewardship. Bless you. Um, and we continually look at those health checks being the brand study that is in place um within the contract. We're going to be talking constantly and consistently about not only occupancy, but really about RevPAR and ADR. um and looking back at our visitor profile studies um and ensuring that we have those really really deep understanding of who the visitor is today and who we're going after for tomorrow. That doesn't just mean for leisure, that means also for meetings and groups. And I think we'll talk a little bit more about that as well when um Tara and and Chase present on that. And then priority number four um uh sales and marketing. And we're going to

dive a little bit deeper. It's it's been great to have um Tara Frank on board and to really dive into what meetings and groups means to our destination and work in lock step with our general managers and directors of sales and marketing at the property levels. It's been really great. Mr. Brown,

um can we pause on this just for a moment? Um I'm gonna try to tee up my comments here. Um, I've enjoyed the conversation this far. Let me let me say that. I'm happy that we're at the table together. Um, this no matter what happened in the past, um, there's old Gulla saying, a new broom sweep clean, got a new contract. So, I think it's a new day regardless of the long-standing relationship. Okay. Um and how we're able to honest point at the beginning interact moving forward is going to be essential to success and that's not just the success of the DMO, not just the success of the town, but the success of our community. Um a few things that have been discussed so far. I sort of got my antennas up. Uh Mr. Miles talked about the decline of our ATA tax collections. Now, some will argue that that's us normalizing from CO, but not as good as math as Miss Tunner, but if if we've got a decline in the collections and incline in inflation and cost around it, that's disturbing to me. Okay. So, I'd sort of like to shift the conversation a little bit to understand how we're going to continue to better position ourselves moving forward as we look at these pillars. The KPIs is what sort of got my attention. Um, and what I've got written down here is uh I guess two things.

Backing off of Miss Tail again. Um, she's asking for relevance. So, last year's numbers versus this year's numbers. Okay. So, we start to talk about those metrics and I think that's important for us to measure oursel against the past that we we have to do that or we're just putting numbers and words on paper. All right. Secondly is the experience of our offerings. Um yeah, I didn't comment on the the last pillar uh discussion, but I think it's important for us to really be asking ourselves on both sides of the table here. What are the what what are we asking the DMO to market and what are those offerings and the experiences behind those? So, I'm okay with the transition um as far as where you're going, but I do want to understand the details behind it. and the offerings behind it and how those are stacking up year. Um, we all know the big drivers, beach, golf, but the small ones, they add up and what do they mean to us on a year-to-year basis. And it's not always about GMO is putting the right dollars in the right places. It's also about what decisions we're making to enhance those offerings. Right? So that's the piece that I need to see in these KPIs to help us make better decisions. Um so in regards to um the focus on higher value visitors um that's going to have an obviously an impact if you're you know focusing on higher income uh visitors. The reason why our annual visitors may be going

down because we're targeting higher value individuals. Uh but when we look at the overall economic impact on the overall visitor spending, it's actually up. So we have less people coming, but they're actually spending more, which is probably a reflection of the average um person that we are attracting. But even though that is happening, that impacts businesses in various ways. So um you know depending on what the business is and and who they market who they market to it could be so it creates change in the business environment. Um it ch creates change in the short-term rental market. Um you know it it makes change in the hotel dynamics. you know there there are a lot of ramifications there and things that I think we need to understand and prepare for. Um so I wanted to make that point. The the other point was in in regards to the strategic pillars, you know, I think there's some other KPIs that might be appropriate um under these pillars. But one of the things that I wanted to ask about is the new brand study. So, and maybe that's going to be covered in another section or not, but I'd love to hear more about that and learn what that is, what you hope to learn from it, and how you would use that information. That's great. We do have a little bit of um insight for the one that we just ran against America, right? Naturally, yours, excuse me. Um and we're going to be able to share some of those insights and talk about the cadence in which we're going to run those going forward. So, it'll be great and it's great to have those pulse checks of just how you're doing from a brand standpoint, but I just I want to say thank you. I appreciate the conversation around the softer side of giving a number. I think it's important because it's one

thing to talk about heads and beds, but as all we're all consumers, so asking ourselves what it feels like and having the conversation. So, it's really twoprong. As a consumer, what it feels like to walk into a restaurant with no one else there or to try to book an excursion and it's not available because there's not enough visitors to the island to understand that that run the amount of times it's used to being running. And then from a business standpoint, how are we ensuring that the health of the economy is there? I think those are just there's all these different touch points that we we can make a statement. have to understand there's there's

I want to follow up just a little bit to what what both of them just just talked about because it's it's it's the predecess of economic development and what is it that we're providing as a community to our businesses and to our residents. So, how do we take that information, manipulate it so that we can understand where we're going, how we're having a positive and or negative effect by the decisions that are being made? Um, so I it's it's additional information that we would like to see going forward because it can help us tremendously.

I think one thing that if I can build um Mr. around on the comments that you made around um you know you have you have beach you have golf you kind of what I'd say pillar experiences but the smaller ones do add up I think like as we move forward and we'll get into this a little bit here shortly we have to be aware of how consumers are discovering our product now has shifted so much um so you could say like to determine which experiences we put forward in our marketing on the forefront yet yes to some degree um but if people want to find pickle ball, they're going to find pickle ball. Um, it could be through chat GBT, it could through be through AI overviews on Google. So, what we can do is to work with the destination and the partners in the destination to help shape that narrative at the same time. But I think one of the other great things um that uh the VCB is doing is to get into those highincome households, we have to be comfortable with the fact that, you know, they may not be clicking on a search engine anymore. they may not be using AI to find this. They may be calling a travel advisor, right? So, we're engaging new channels to tap into these people, too. Um, which could have an impact on web metrics or things like that, but if we're bringing them here, um, and to Chase's point earlier, right, if they're spending more while they're here, that's a win as well. We just kind of have to reshape our brains on the metrics a little bit, um, which is hard to do sometimes, but it is kind of a new space with all of these changes taking place.

Absolutely. And and we'll talk about this a little bit later in the presentation. Um but within the different age groups that we have coming in, how do we attract that newer, younger age group and what is it that we're missing? What is it that we're not offering? We had that conversation this morning. You know, what are we not offering? So where are those missing pieces? And this is where it can help us start to figure some of that out. And you know, I I say it all the time, Mr. Brown says it, but I want to see a more of a 35year-old generation on Hilton Head, you know, because that's that's the vitality. That's that's where we go. But this is not just about tourism. It's about so much more, right? So, Miss Bryson, I know you have something to add.

I I recognize that these are four strategic pillars, but by the use of the term pillars in two different um two different areas, it's a bit confusing. So, you know, if you look at the other one, first of all, we've got the original pillars and we got refined pillars and both of those are five. Now we got four pillars, but when you look at these, it's part of your strategic plan. So just to say the language is confusing as to start with and and I'm not going to word smith anything. Trust me, I don't like to do that. Um but if I look at these um I drew a line where it says KPI targets because I'm looking at those saying how do those measure or value pillars. So if I look at pillar one destination alignment and community engagement and if and I do appreciate the surveys have been done I I think um M Clark will remember me saying look at the trend it's like consistent trend over I think there were four waves am I right or there's a fifth wave going on now um so there is a consistent trend for some of the same questions but how do I measure in any of these pillars where's the KPI target which tells me that the local community is concerned about the environment and folks who come here supporting our environment and the ecoourism where how do I measure that I don't measure it by a resident survey maybe the new new brand study is going to do that I don't measure it by golf rounds um you know how do I measure that um our local community who feels so strongly about our environment here is satisfied that the number of visitors who come here also share that value Where do we measure that? Where do we measure the value of continuing the gulla culture? I I don't measure that by occupancy and revpar. Where do we measure that? I don't measure it by group meetings unless it's a conference

for Gulla Heritage. So I I don't understand how we can measure using those KPI targets with whatever the values are. Um, and I go back to the original pillars because that's part of the agreement. But how do you measure those? And I know we've got some data coming up. I've seen the work of of Mr. Odell. I keep want to call him Mr. Chase. Um, thank you, Chase. Right. Right. Right. Nickname him Chaser AI. Oh, there you go.

Yeah. Yeah. He's chasing the data. I know that. Um, but at any rate, um, where and and maybe there's some place in there that you're going to show us how you can measure that. What is the KPI target to accomplish these goals? Whatever we're trying to figure out if we agree to or not, you know where I stand. Um, but how do we measure those in these? I don't see the link. I'm sorry. I just don't see the link.

I'll just mention briefly, we in addition to the uh resident sentiment survey, we study visitors, you know, what drew you to the island. That is a question we ask. we could probably refine to be a bit more specific. Um but um yes, aside from just the resident cinema survey, we do survey our visitors. So that's that's an opportunity. I think capture at the very top like what are their interests? I think help guide us into how do we capture that from what they're liking the brand. We have been able to show that. So, we have a a little bit of a a matchup piece.

I'm saying is that's not appearing here. Yeah, you're right. When we can we can connect the thoughts.

I was going to suggest to Mrs. Bryce's point um implementing that into this as well because you know this is the first time we're all going through it. But for the other other groups that are going to review it, those things would be very pertinent. So, going into the next one, which I know we touched on earlier, Councilman Bryson, but local events. I think this is the one that we wanted to dive a little deeper into. So, Chase is going to work with me on this one because he's got the link. I've got my glasses, so I think we're going to be able to do it. Um, so, first and foremost, the um what we often refer to as the virtual front door for the brand, hilton island.org, or has been a great opportunity for us to create all things events on Hilton Head Island. And it's one of the pieces and pages that we bring forward for our community to list their tourism specific events if they um are a you know they go on and they can list everything with pictures and details and links out to their site. So, we've had this up. Um, we wanted to share some stats with you like how are people really engaging with this and over 2025 the performance on that was over 274,000 views to this website to this specific page on the website as well as 217,000 external links to the partners and to the members and to the community members. So we see that here and Chase is actually going to pull it up so you can see it real time. Um, and at a foundational level, this access point is for everyone to access, put their event and kind of shout it from the rooftops. And we have some of the paid advertising that we talk about in section one of the budget, both in social and in digital ads that go to push this page. So, that's where we're getting those numbers, right? There's money behind pushing it out. And what we're seeing here is again right now it's it's golf on the header, but as you scroll down you can see a

multitude of different events and there's sorting features and filters that you can put on to get something more specific to what you're looking for. Um you can choose by date range, by category, by location. So I think at a foundational level we have this amazing um opportunity for for our community to events. In addition to that, we have the opportunity to work with Chase on our team for um any outreach opportunities for place. He actually just pulled some really great insight. Is that correct? You have it for

Is microphone picking him up? stuff down there. Just turn it on. There you go. Is that better? Yeah.

Yeah. So, we uh partner with the University of South Carolina Bufort um for several local events. Um they actually send on the ground um students uh to go and collect uh information from attendees. And that is important not just from a you know they can kind of estimate the number of people who attended but also gives you the information that only a survey can. You know what is the attendees sentiment to this event? What drew them to the event? you know, um what do they like about the event? That's information that you're not going to get through a more quantitative source like Placer. Um and that's valuable insight that we're able to partner with, um partner with these events and uh USCB to provide. Um in addition to that, as already mentioned, we can run Placer AI reports which can give geoloccation data for the number of people who attended. Not all events on the island are ticketed. Sometimes it's harder to determine how how many people attended. This is a great insight into that. And not only that, but also demographics. Who came, why, uh who came, how many of them came, and where did they come from? That's the other piece of it. So, we're able to tell, you know, what percentage of people came to an event from uh you know, locally or outside of 50 miles. And so, that's another important uh piece of information for our event partners. And like I mentioned, we did just do one for the St. Patrick's Day parade. We're currently working with USCB to put the event report together for them. Um but that's just the most recent example. I have a quick question on that. Um that just done sporadically for events as per by their request or what's that process? Just curious.

Yeah, so it's by request. Um there are some events that we know we're going to do it every year. Uh because we've partnered with them for several years. Um but as an example, this was the first time we've had a St. Patrick's Day parade in a couple years. Um so this was a new opportunity for me because I've only been here about a year and a half uh to partner with them in order to get this information for them. Yes, any local event can um request it and we will partner with them in order to u make sure they get that information. I think that comes from understanding on their on the event um side what their requests are from supplemental grant application process and what they're reporting. So having that knowledge we can work and so we even follow along how that's been going and we keep track of who's going to be events this year ones that have applied and and received money how we can help support them. So we are in lock step with understanding what she does many of those questions that come in. So I can at minimum we have this platform that is supporting you know opportunity to dive a little deeper and this comes back from when we were um around that time we we identified on the next slide when Chase gets back that we'll talk about you know the need time frames and we identified those as fall and winter offseason right so we are talking um September through all the way through March. That's what we've identified as fall and winter. And from there um we have really partnered on a deeper level. What does deeper mean? We meet with each partner that is listed up here, Gala Celebration, Hilton Island Seafood Festival, the Wine and Food Festival, Concord Deagans and Crescendo. We work with them annually to understand their needs. how can we best promote and support you um and identify areas to complement going back to how do we you're both in there but we're both

working to promote this um event or multiple events within that um calendar year and we say okay we're going to divide and conquer we're going to do X Y and Z we're going to complement what your efforts are and in addition we're more um surveys from USCB and we're going to give you a wrap-up report inclusive of place so again on the front end planning and being a part of promoting and working with our hotels to see if there's any kind of package they can put together. Again, driving heads and beds in that need time frame and then also ensuring that they have the recap reports that are necessary to go into their wrap up. So again, these are the five, but the I think the question within the contract is what additional ones can we help with? Um and so we are working closely with Angie and happy to discuss those at further, but we've identified a couple additional ones that um came to mind and and we're happy to pull those on for this year and going forward. So I guess nimble and flexible as needed.

So thank you for that last comment because that was one of my questions um in terms of how that would be incorporated for the future, how those um five and others would be chosen. But my original question is probably one you've heard from me before. With the local events and the websites, who is able to log on and put their event onto your website? So, we welcome again, and I'm going to be we welcome any event to come on and support those opportunities with on our website. So, you can go on um Robert on the other end is approving those. Um and if you don't have, you know, if you run into any challenges, you can call him. his numbers on there and he can help put that through.

We'll know that that's the process if they should get a kickback or not. Um, it does state it on there, but I will, you know, we can make sure that the copies there to make sure, but I believe it's if you have any run into any problems, his email at minimum is on there, but I believe his phone number is too. I can double check. Are any specific requirements in terms of what would cause someone not to be initially just accepted in their event put on? I'm sure there are some, but I'm just curious. Yeah, there is um just general best practice and guidance when it comes to public facing events. We we do not dabble in from an event standpoint, religious or political um events that we're listing on there. So again, we welcome all and we we

those those I would have assumed to be part of the answer. I guess I'm driving more. Do you have to be a chamber member? Not no not in this one. We that that's what it is. So when you um go on and if you were to run into any Well, yeah. No, and I know again, sorry, I thought I was answering answering that directly, but um for local events, we welcome any and all and we would love to have and if if you were to run into a snag and you couldn't get it on there, you would just call or email Robert. Perfect. Thank you so much, Brown.

Yeah. Um I appreciate uh you all sort of aligning with the agreement to get to this space. Um obviously um this this is going to be sort of a common thread for a lot of opportunities on Hilton Head. Uh the chamber's got sort of a a bigger reach and some cases a bigger purse. So they're of reaching at a very high level and then the organization itself probably has a little more of a on the ground approach right. Um so the two connecting is so important. Um and the use of technology, the use of other resources to understand what visitor we are attracting which ultimately leads to hopefully a a tax dollar, right? Um just connecting those dots is is critical. Uh so I appreciate that we are offering this to everyone. I think Mr. Orlando, at a minimal, we should um notify our current Apex applicants and recipients of this so that they can take advantage of the magic that Chase can produce. Um uh it it just makes sense, you know, particularly now, uh we we've charged the ATAC, uh committee with being even more keenly focused, um understanding exactly where they're going to allocate dollars. they are asking the right questions and unfortunately there are organizations that just don't have the resources to provide information to help them with those decisions. Right? So this partnership I think makes a lot of sense. So thank you for for the effort.

I think kind of where we're focused right now to build on exactly what you're talking about. It's it's the sharing of that data but also the communication between the groups that may not have that reach and um the destination itself best practices that can be shared so everybody elevates at the same time as well. So even I'm going to talk about AI a lot today. Um but but as we kind of move into that space to make it effective for the destination, you know, we can share guidelines, best practices just like the best practices for an event listing um that Ari spoke of a minute ago, right? Um what we can do to work together from a PR standpoint, a social influencer standpoint, everything else to make sure everybody is elevated. And I second that too just from a community standpoint is is in addition to the destinations website this is always being pushed out. You know we change how we communicate now. We we talk to two tracks. We talk to residents and we talk to our business members. So some of the most popular things we do have to do with these events. Um people want to know. We're sending out our low country lowdown pushing that out. Uh getting great response on that. We're and social media obviously as you can see we're pretty visible too at all events and have a great relationship with the town in terms of sharing that information and making sure we're in lock step. So there's so many ways we're doing that. Don't have to be a member. Don't have to be one of those biggie events to make that happen.

Honor.

Yes. So uh I appreciate the inclusiveness of uh allowing um people to be able to take advantage of posting their events on the website. I think that'll help lift everyone up. So, I appreciate that. Um, events was something that we asked for for more coverage and support on events. Um, in regards to the ones that you have identified, um, happy to see you included the St. Patty's Day parade because I had that on my list as something to add. Uh, as well as the lantern parade, uh, another big event. And um you know I'm wondering from my peers if there are any others that um you know we should be adding and I hear about all this great placer AI but I haven't seen anything yet. So my question would be and you know we just had the seafood festival uh which was packed. I mean that it was big event um you know do we have data from the seafood festival and uh because that was listed as one of one of the items here. So when are we going to be able to see that? Um, and there should probably be a um regular package of how you present that material if you're going to be doing this for multiple events. Um, so that we can learn

and I'll speak to that really quickly. We do have that data and we'd be uh happy to share it. It will be as mentioned here in the actual marketing plan document. um those uh campaign wrap-up reports which is going to incorporate some data as well as some information from like website is going to be in the marketing land appendix with a bit more detail. So you should see some of that um as an example we can incorporate that information too. He did geofence the route this year and I was actually looking at it if not yesterday the day before. Um it was a year. Um so I wanted to know more about it. So many people attended. Um but yeah more information about that will be in the marketing plan appendix.

Now that I know about Chase's magic, we're going to be having a lot of conversations. I found out this week we were talking. So we're already I'm already hitting him up for data. So we will chaser All right, Chase. Yeah, it is. And Chase, the takeaway on this is that we should be proactive and not just while we're here discussing it, but the follow-up reports for with with council and staff.

Yeah, Mayor, I'm going to jump in. Thank you for saying that, Bill, because there's just two things. One is how do we just make sure that as as you if we if we hit a reset, what's the system, right? How do we get those updates on Gulla Celebration, Seafood Fest, wine and and food? There's a few others up there. I think the one question that Councilman Brown was asking is what's the process to help? Right? You know, you can help, but do the folks that need help know you can help. I think that we have to figure out, well, we're not all sitting around the table talking about this and mindful of it. We're all doing other things. is what is that system that needs to be in place that perhaps we're a part of to help broker and a part of Bill to help you and your team realize those folks need help rather than just coming to a workshop and saying well there's a bunch of folks out there that need help. We got be careful that it's not a hundred people asking you for help either. So there's got to be a system in place that we are you work on and tell us what it is.

I would I would say to that I speak to that too. That's a that's an intentional campaign. Let's make an intentional and as we're sitting here talking about it, let's make an intentional campaign that that reminds residents and those who are event planners, did you know you can be part of this? It should be, as you mentioned, the language on the website, the language on our website. We can push it out at our comms. We can also um I think it'd be great to push it out obviously via social just as a campaign to remind people, but then also to communicate with each of you. Maybe we need to get into them just a just a very brief smart brief quick bullet points on a on a whatever it is weekly bi-weekly basis. St. Patrick's Day parade just happened. Here's how many attended. Here's how many from in town. Did you know that we you know for advocacy? This bill is impacting H2B visas. This is how it's impacting our island. What do you think about that? Does that sound like a logical just something to have further discussion about at least but maybe a a plan? I I think that part of the educational process back to us allows us to to realize how we can utilize it. um not only for events but for you know all of that right but I have a question you know what is the cost to the organizations um are there additional costs every time you run an event um and can you actually let's say that um Winefest you know they didn't ask to have it you know geofenced can you go back and take a look at it because somebody is is tracking that right

yeah so uh the answer to that question is yes uh Police AI goes back to 2019 and is retroactive. So if I decided that I wanted to see how many people attended the lantern parade two years ago, I could set the dates and look at that information.

So I have a long history with the St. Patrick's Day parade and and I actually suggested that they call y'all about doing this because um it's tough to get good data from people out on the streets when they're having fun to fill out a survey. Um, so it makes sense, but but I also think Mark, to your to your point, how do we look at it from an ATAC standpoint, from a validation um or additional information that can be utilized to help an organization. So I, you know, that's partly that's on us to put that education piece out there. So I don't want to get stuck on something for too long because we got a lot more information to cover and many pages, but Mr. I wanted to respond to Miss Clark's direct question. Is that something that is important that we need to expand upon? Absolutely. Yes would be my response. Okay. Um I think that's sort of a missing gap. Um you know, we at the town hall, we sort of pride ourselves in governmental operations. You guys have a different expertise and resource that can help us along the way. And while we're talking about landing parade and while we're talking about going to being able to go back Chase, I think that's important because you think that the landing parade is growing because people were fussing at us about where we parked but but understanding how it is growing will help us from operational standpoint as well, right? So just as long as we are looking at data not just today but something to compare against that will help all of us as far as the enhancement of the community. Sorry.

How we can, you know, walk before we run in that instance is really put arms around. Let's start with these five, six or seven, 10, whatever that number is, so we can get a good understanding of how this is this working, is this not working before we just kind of take off because he has such great insight, but we want to make sure it's the right insight for you to make decisions. Excuse me. Um, can I just make sure everybody speaks into their mics because there we're having some trouble with the um, we can't hear everybody on the recording. Yeah, if you just pull your mics a little closer. Thank you.

Thank you. So, I'm just going to be on a real positive note here. I've heard such great conversation and anybody who knows who works with me here or anywhere knows that communication is the key to absolute all success. And so this conversation that I've listened to has been so rich and so um full of of what it is that we need to work in partnership moving forward with. The answer to your question is absolutely like Mr. Brown great information. More information you give us the better it is for us not only to understand what y'all are doing behind the scenes etc. But it really does, as mayor, you pointed out before, it gives us the data and the information to move forward, economic development, what makes sense for our next moves with regard to any policies that we're considering, and how do we enhance opportunities here on the island. So, thank you for this. I really appreciate the time that we're spending together, the information that you're sharing, and I know from this we have so much further to go together. But I just wanted to say that,

Miss Bryson.

Yes. Um, first of all, I thank you for honoring this part of the new contract. I want to start out with that positive part. And I do appreciate this. I know I've asked before about helping out with local events and community events, and this is truly doing that. And I I agree with Ari, we need to have some sort of limit on this first time out of the box. We don't need to have a hundred, I think. Um, I don't see how you can do that, first of all, and second of all, I think it would kind of disperse the efforts. Um but in in looking at a couple of the events up there which I wholeheartedly support the Gulla celebration it's actually a month-long celebration and then also um a crescendo is a month long. So it's a little difficult to measure every one of those days. So somehow we've got to figure out how to do something that's a monthl long just a suggestion. Um and and the other thing is in addition and I think it's a great suggestion to look at our u tax organizations to see those of whom need help because others you're already partnering with and so there may be some there uh based on whatever pillars we finally land on um that should be the focuses of those pillars. Um and then the the last thing I would say um is that um I didn't quite catch your dropown box with the categories. Don't go back there now for time sake, but send us the link to what you were looking at so that we can take a look at the dropown box. I'm just curious about if those categories line up again with the pillars. Um, and for instance, if if if I want to come to Olicai Paddle in the fall, do I find that on your website? That's another event that attracts folks from lots of other places to come to. Um, so not saying that I would substitute that for ones you've got on the list right now, but I think we need to maybe uh with staff's help um and working uh in partners with the DMO to come up with those key ones we'd like to focus on first.

Becker, so um Paty, it's a month-long um event, but within that month, there are various pieces to it. So, would you be satisfied if we were looking at measuring the various pieces? Obvious. Um, I think that's something that our staff could help us with. I would lean on our director of our office of cultural affairs for those monthlong events to suggest how to do that. Not me.

Oh, and I'll just chime in here. So um existing protocols are that you know before many months before we start with Crescendo we reach out to Miss Natalie and we talk to her about you know what are your marquee events that you've identified that you would like to see this reporting done on and so lantern parade is one of those we also do the kickoff event in the beginning and there's various ones throughout the monthlong plus that we celebrate uh that she celebrates with the community and beyond that we identify same with Gulla celebration so on and so forth. So, um there is a little bit of that um detail that we can bring forward just to showcase kind of how we've already been working that can then help us understand how we can move forward. And Angie, maybe that's an

Mark. So, so is the ask that we provide you with those list of events to just make sure they're they're captured. Why don't we why don't we start there? Um, and then we can then break down if there's if it's a multi-week or a couple month long, we can identify maybe the marquee events within it. Does that make sense? Like RBC and island jams and things like that. Yeah. Okay. Let's move on.

All right. So, next we're going to go over uh article 62D, which is surveys and metrics. All right. All right. So the first thing I want to do here is define the metrics that we measuring ourselves against. Um so um these metrics that I've listed here on this slide uh are inclusive of um the metrics that destinations destinations international considers to be uh best practice uh right now. Um in addition to that I've also folded in the ones that were specifically called out in the contract language. Um, I do also want to point out that there are two uh metrics down at the bottom of the list that are not currently recommended by Destinations International. Though we anticipate some form of that language will eventually be added by Destinations International. Uh, we've decided to be proactive in tracking these analytics because uh quite frankly they are going to be where the industry is moving. Uh, so um, thanks to some of the tools we have available, we're able to start tracking some of those coming up in the next next year, next fiscal year. Uh so we went ahead and added them to the list and that'll be information that you should be able to start seeing reporting on um in the you know over the next year. And so I just wanted to call that out. Um the next thing I want to talk about and forgive me I'm going to stand up again. Actually Ari's going to stand up. Um I wanted to point out that uh a lot of our surveys and metrics are published on our um newly redone uh think transparency and tourism marketing page. Um from this page you're able to access um all of our reporting. We have our economic impact reports. We have our tourism metric books. We have our visitor profile studies. We have our tourism like our marketing plans that are uh addition within the marketing plan. You will find the budget for that year. And then we have 10 years of independent financial audits listed under the finance tab. So uh if you're on the homepage of the think page, you can access any of that reporting. It's all two clicks away uh and you can download it and uh view it yourself.

Mayor, mayor, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think this is really important for the public to hear. I appreciate Mr. Chase that you went through that pretty fast, but this is such a key thing to the communications to the public. So, if if I want to find this, do I go to chamber and then think and then how do I get there? And it's important for the public to know that this exists because we made a big deal in the contract and in our pardon me in the presentation when we approved the contract about new information on your website. That's why I wanted to stop.

There are a couple different ways to get to that site. You can go to the um hilton island.org webpage and scroll down to the bottom in the footer there. You'll see um a thing that says think. You can click there. Uh you can go to the chamber site. Same thing bottom of the page. You can get there or you could just go to think hiltonhead island.org and it will redirect you right to this page. It was think about it now and now get there. I hope you don't mind. We might we might steal that slogan. Thank Councilman Bryson. We'll send that link additionally with the events link. Mor.

So, thank you for updating that website. I know in the past it uh wasn't easy to use and and didn't always or at least I couldn't always find the information that I was looking for. So, thank you for uh getting that all organized. I will be going out there and taking a look. Um in regard to the survey and metrics, um I just wanted to make a couple of comments and I know that in the contract it says something about, you know, we can continue to have conversations and mutually agree about uh some of these metrics because things are changing. Uh, one of the occupancy pieces that, um, I want to make sure that we include on a regular basis is time shares. Um, you know, I haven't seen it consistently. I saw one number one time and the reason why I think it's important is they have a much higher occupancy rate than hotels and villas. And I think it makes the point to the community that um you know there's a concern about time shares and they may be as big as a hotel but they feel um a much bigger impact in the community because the occupancy rate is so much higher. And so I think measuring that is going to be important uh for us to understand as we you know think about the future. um in a

mentioned somewhere and I I couldn't find it. It was earlier in the package about surveys and there was comment about business surveys. So where are their business surveys? Um I I'm not aware of any that I've personally seen. And if we think about all the constituencies and we talk about um you know we want this to be uh our tourism we we do our residents we uh you know get information from our tourists and we talked about expanding more. What about the businesses themselves? I'll I'll let Charlie talk more about this. Well, we we do a uh a survey of the chamber membership which constitutes obviously a large part of the business community

every single year. Yeah. This is the first year by contract we're including that into it. So I think it's a really it's been a great exercise. Quite frankly, you'll see as probably have already reviewed, it's always interesting to take a look at what residents have to say and what if you really narrow down to what visitors saying about some of the same topics and what businesses have to say about that. So yeah, we've included some in here and those will have um highlights as well included in the uh in the appendix of the marketing plan. And to be clear, it's not the first year we've done that survey, but it's the first year that's been included in this. It's I since I've I know I've done 25 of them. So, it's really interesting to see over the over the years what's changed and what hasn't.

Yeah.

So, uh yes, we will continue to have conversations about how we change these or which ones we going to focus on. Um but my comments are really around the comparable destinations. Okay. past we've seen um metrics uh for ourselves year-over-year, but I want to know how we're standing up just as uh Mr. Miles was showing that we are punching above our weight when it comes to other um organizations of same size. Okay. Um, but I think we, when I say we, not just council, but as you're having discussions at the staff level, we're really starting to tease out what those comparable destinations are. Take a poll right now of our community and say who we don't want to be like. I'm sure the answer is going to be Myrtle Beach, right? But, but let's really understand what we're talking about here. I think that's important for us to slow down and come back with those metrics, but the story behind those metrics.

Okay. Um, I just want to make a a quick statement. We still have a lot more to go here. Um, I'm not trying to to deter conversation, but um, if we're going to get through this tonight, u, let's keep moving.

So, in that interest, I'll jump ahead to the next slide. I do want to emphasize what we're going to see today. The metrics I'm going to present are just the ones outlined in the contract. All these metrics of course will be available in the marketing plan appendex and the DMO metrics. So the first thing we're going to look at here as per the contract is the average spend per visitor and by category. Uh I don't think there's any surprises here. Lodging makes up the largest slice of the pie. Uh food makes up the next largest slice of the pie. And then as you go down the list, you'll see um some experiences, golf, uh festivals, uh performance, visual arts, um cultural events, um kind of rounding out the bell curve there.

All right. So, the next thing we're going to look at Oh, go ahead. Before you even I went through this thing earlier. I'm a numbers guy and it just boom hit me in the face on this page that you're looking

really what everything that you do boils down to everything. Right? So November, December, January, you look at those numbers and you go, correct me if I'm wrong. You go, what can we do to bring those numbers up? Right? Because those are that's the low season. Correct? So, is there anyone in this room a little suspect because is there anyone in this room believes that the month that we just went through is 83% of the month of July? No one, right? Is that's impossible. Anyone believe that March and April are almost equal? We have heritage. We have Easter. We have spring break. It can't be the same as March. I'm a little suspect of this visitors and everything that we do, everything that you're doing is based on visitors. So, I just I'm wondering where these numbers come from.

Right. This this information comes from kind of a combination of a couple different sources. Um, one of those sources is our occupancy information that we get from key data. That's for hotels and homes and villas. Uh we do also uh to your point earlier, we do send uh our uh time share occupancy information to our research partners at the College of Charleston. um they use that information along with some public financial information to model out the number of visitors we had in a particular month and then obviously for a particular

you can't tell me that this this weekend and the weekend after you tried to drive around this island was just like this month it were 50 if if March were 50% of April or 50% % of July. I wouldn't I wouldn't blink, but not 83%. Something's off. And and and and it's not to be picky, but I know that everything that you do is ba are based on this. They're based on this graph. Why apply effort in November, December, and January? The graph's off. Why apply less effort in March or April versus July if it's off? You know what I mean? You see what I'm saying?

I do. Points well taken. And we will Do you feel like it's off? We'll uh let us dive a little deeper into it and then we're going to invite you in to uh do a deep deep dive on it with us to make sure that we're all uh I mean you come to my house and drive out of my driveway and go down Pope Avenue every day and I can tell you what the population of the island is. This is where I would ask if if the spacer AI could tell us how many people are coming over for the day and and creating that. I I my I forgot actually one of my questions are day trippers involved in this on these numbers also. So this particular number does include day trippers. This is not just

it does this is not just the overnight visitors. Okay. Some sub some some rotten in Denmark. Not rotten, don't get me wrong. I'm just see something's off. Let's take a closer look. I agree with what Bill's saying. Can take a closer look at the number because we're internally we see numbers and we I'll walk down to Chase's office every day going asking the same things. How does this work? Tell me how this works. And that's why I want to do the deeper dive because there's nuance. I don't know when Easter was. I don't know if there was a deep freeze. I don't know if Easter overlapped heritage. All those things, there are nuances to it. So let's just take the deeper dive and make sure at first blush it looks the same

and just the kind of different the mix of things being included here. Again, it's not being picky about your graph. It's about where are you applying your efforts, but you need to understand if the graph's off, the efforts are off. Right. Okay. And I think this next slide is going to be exciting because um Mayor Perry goes back to the point you were talking about about the um age and the breakout of age which is exciting.

Yeah. So before we dive too deep into this slide um again this is based on an artforming contract visitor demographics by category um I want to point out that um this year we for for the first time began to incorporate not only uh survey responses into our visitor profile study but also geoloccation data from Placer and Zardico. So by mult by taking multiple data points we're able to give a more holistic um and more kind of big picture view of who our visitors are and what they look like. Um so as an example here you can see um the female is the decision maker when it comes to visitation on Hilton Head Island. 66% or 64 rather percent of the visitation was female. Um that's all uh to your point here to to your point about age earlier 65% uh sorry 24% of visitors were 65 plus. Um but the inverse of that is also true. That means 75% of our visitation was under the age of 65 in 2025, which is an encouraging number. As well as the fact that the age demographics underneath 65 are relatively uh relatively well dispersed.

That's very exciting, right? To see that we have that, you know, 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 and again that transfer of wallet. It's big news. I I've got to ask because on the previous page you said it included day trippers. Does this include day trippers? You if we're going to include we need to know they're all the way through. Yeah, this this also includes day trippers. Thank you.

Um yes, I'd like that consistency to know whether or not it's day trippers included versus whether it's not. But also, um just some insight at some other point, not now. Um, maybe it's a a visit to see what you do behind the scenes because I am not a technology person at all and everyone knows that. But how you I'd like to see the survey that's used and in um where it's distributed to and how the information is gathered. Yeah, absolutely. Jason, on on these last two slides and anything else where it's appropriate, let's we put an asterric at the bottom and and note that um day trippers are included in the county.

Yeah, we can do that. It's also second homeowners as well. I mean there's all there very many categories uh in that survey.

Yeah, this is supposed to the these demographics I'm showing you are inclusive of all visitation overnight day second home owners um just because they are you know considered visitors as a whole. We could definitely drill down into more specific groups though. Next demographic category I'm going to look at is income. Um so encouragingly um about 35% of our visitation is has a household income of above $150,000 per year. Um that's uh you know that's a good number. Um but what's interesting is that number actually caps out at 151 on Zardico and place AI. That's the highest they track. Anything after that just says plus. Um so this is another piece where the survey does provide a little bit of insight. um our visitor uh profile study, the actual uh survey itself measured up to 250,000. Um that number uh we have about 12% of our visitation who is over $250,000 household income per year, which is 2% higher than um you know the national population being about 10% um of US population. So we're overperforming with that group.

Mr. Brown, this is a household income, correct? Brett. Um, I again I just want to pause on this for a moment. Has nothing to do with us inviting people to come to Hilton Head to play golf for the weekend, go to the beach for the weekend. But our DMO is also responsible for our future resident.

Heard it I don't know how many times. If I go around this table, I'll probably hear it again. I visited here and I decided to live here. The invert of the 35% in my rough calculation is 65%. That means that 65% of the people that are visiting Hilton Head are under $150,000 a year as a household income. That's important for us to really think about. you're making decisions as to how we're building community here. And I'll stop. All right. So, the next thing we're going to look at is occupancy comparison with competitor destinations. Um the competitor destinations we selected here were Savannah and Charleston because um under uh previous rules, we had used those as the competitors to compare ourselves against. Um, obviously we can change that going forward, but um, based on what we had in 2025, that's who we compare itself against. Um, obviously completely different markets. Uh, they have different seasonality, they have different, uh, lodging mix. Um, but what I found encouraging here is that on Hilton Head, our lodging mix is relatively um, there's a good balance, right? Uh, the occupancy rate for hotels is not vastly ahead of homes and villas. And the inverse of that is also true. All right. So now I'm going to briefly talk about some um group sales metrics. Right. So um the d the this data highlights three things I want to point out. Uh the demand we're generating uh how that demand is converting and then

the economic impact to the destination. So, so far in 2026, we've generated 37 group leads, which is already 59% of last year's total. Um, I want to emphasize that um this data was taken at the end of February. So, this does not include March. So, the first two months of 2026, we're 59% of the way we were for the uh for the total of 2025. Um, we have 2,926 room nights showing solid demand, building for future bookings. And one of the most important indicators here is planner engagement. and we've had 320 planner touch points already, which already exceeds last year's total. Um, we've created 173 new accounts, which is a significant increase, and our trade shows are just getting started for the year. So, that number will build as we move through our sales calendar. The next section is the conversion section. Uh, we've uh con we've confirmed 12 definite groups so far this year, uh, compared to 19 last year. Our conversion rate has improved 32% which is up from 30%. And I want to call that out specifically because our lead volume has gone up. Typically that means your conversion rate goes down and that's not the case. Ours has gone up. Um so this tells us we are bringing in more qualified leads and focusing on the right type of business for this destination. Uh economic impact. The groups booked so far in 2026, that's the ones here that are coming in 2026 represent approximately 3.5 million in economic impact. And on average, each attendee spends about $275 per day per visit, which supports local hotels, restaurants, retail, transportation, and other services. So, kind of sum all that up, about 58% of our group business falls in need periods. Knee periods being outside of the summer. Our average group size is 95 attendees, um, which fits right in our sweet spot of 75 to 250 peak room nights. Uh that's a number we came to by working closely with our hotel partners and our top feeder markets of the southeast and the mid-Atlantic with uh which are strong drive and short hall

short hall flight markets. Just a just a quick quick stat here. Um at Winefest over the weekend I was told that um last year um the Weston brought in a core group of influencers that that book travel and because of that weekend they were able to book over over 1100 rooms uh room nights um because of that event. So it's it makes a difference. That was unsolicited by the way.

All right. So now we're going to go through the next part which is the digital performance metrics.

Okay. Um so a little bit of an overview um of the overall performance of the hiltonhead island.org uh website. Um looking back at 2025. Um I want to point out um as as I'm sure all of you are aware um faced a lot of headwinds both with AI and how that's impacting um discovery and travel and hospitality um along with some geopolitical headwinds um namely tariffs and the impact that that has had on travel uh to the region um which we'll speak to in a minute. Uh but we rounded out the year um almost 2.9 million uh visitors to hiltonhead island.org. So Mr. Brown to your point earlier about that reach um that we have with the platform um quite huge um even even despite the headwinds um of that um our social media growth meaning social media traffic inbound to the website uh grew by 9.5% um a little over half a million visitors that way. Very strong engagement rate at 69.3%. Um, and the website conversions, meaning people that come in, similar to the local events page we had up earlier, that are linking out to partners in the regions and businesses in the region. That conversion rate uh just shy of 30%. Um, so we're sending, you know, millions of referrals um through to partners in this uh in this region. And that's kind of why we tell stories, right? Let's tell stories, drive the engagement as we can see, and connect the dots. Even with this positive story, 2 almost 9 million visitors, you know, that traffic year-over-year was down about 14%. Um, and if we can go to the next slide, um, this is really one of the the big headwinds that we saw in 2025. Um, international visitation of the website, you know, down 32%. Um, if we look at our our friends to the north, as we call them in Canada, um,

you know, that visitation down 60%. Um we thought it was really important to isolate um the United Kingdom because of all of the past years of efforts in growing international markets and what we're seeing there that traffic down 23%. An interesting kind of factoid if we kind of fast forward to where we're at today. Um you know particularly the the UK side of business, we're starting to see that pick back up. Um Canada is still trending down um right now. Um but we've also have seen no resolution um on anything there. But uh you know the UK visitation is actually up this year um when we look at the first quarter of the year.

So going forward on if we can go back to that one real quick. Going forward if we could have comparisons to our competitive markets as to what they're seeing within their their traffic through that through the websites directionally right direction. We clearly don't have access to to all of their data but directionally we can find insights. And then another element, I believe some of you sat in on the last marketing council presentation that I did where we can actually provide an additional layer of search insights. Um, so who is actually who is actually running to uh an AI agent or a search engine looking for Hilton Head Island or our competitor and what headwinds are they seeing? That's all publicly available to us.

I'm working with a lot of DMOS in this space as well. So we're working really closely with destinations international on this front too. So their latest researches were down for the 13th straight months across the US from Canadian traffic. Of course it depends on where you are. So you did get a lot of snowbirds here right? So you we love the warm weather in Canada so they wanted to come here. So in a place which is harder to get to for Canadians they might not see this drop but it is down. So we're seeing anywhere from I'd say 30% decline to 60 to 75 from Canadian traffic. But I think to Andy's point, the positive thing is that international traffic in some markets is rebounding. So UK to his point, we're also seeing interest related to like the wider US across the World Cup. So that's positive too. Thanks.

Next one. So then if we kind of look at our other headwind and and we say it's always hard when you look at a visualization, you see a negative number, right?

Um but there is a silver lining to this. Um, we're seeing organic traffic for 2025 down 27% year-over-year. People are finding the answers through other means. We all are nodding because we all are doing the exact same thing right now. Um, the impact of AI mode, AI overview agents that are out there um are changing the way that people are discovering our content. Our content is still shaping the answer that they're receiving and Hilton Head Island.org is the authority um for the region shaping that decision. Um, but this is a headwind for perspective. You know, uh, to Steph's point, we work with a lot of different destinations. Um, the average that we are seeing in our portfolio in travel and hospitality, which is the only game that we play in, um, is between 20 to 30%. So, you're you're aligned with what everybody else is seeing. We know other destinations that we're talking to that are taking haircuts and organic traffic. Um, 50%. we know one in particular 72% like that that's hard to recover from um when that happens. So um you know you have to work harder to shape the narrative um make sure that you're a part of those conversations and understanding if we kind of think about our traditional behavior. Do you remember back in the day we would run to Google and we would search for Hilton Head Hotel something just generic and you're going to have to spend all this time sifting through results. But what we're all conditioned to do now because of AI, you're seeing prompts going into traditional Google search longtail keywords. So the opportunity with these new metrics that Chase here has included um in the metrics report is how do we identify those opportunities to surface the smaller players, right? The smaller events or anybody else and make sure everybody's included in the conversation. In terms of partner referrals, um, oddly

enough, website traffic was down, um, a little over 14% as were the partner referrals. But I feel it was Mr. Orlando earlier uh, brought this up, you know, comparing not only to other destinations, but also kind of looking back, how far have we come? So, a benchmark to level set as we all kind of shake off COVID, right? And those years of high ADRs and you know, I always tell our partners, we touched the sky, right? How do we get back there? Um, let's look at 2019. What did that look like? Even with the decline of 14% year-over-year, we are up 113% compared to where we were then. So, as we continue to optimize our content strategy, our platforms, all of our marketing, just continue to stay focused on what we can do to, you know, keep your hand on the pulse for the destination, what will drive more referral.

Sorry, hopefully you can still see me. So, to your earlier question around measuring those content pieces, um, we this is tracked from the original pillars. So uh what we do is we tag all our organic content by those pillars so we understand what people are engaging with and this helps us track to your earlier point what are our visitors interested in. It's one thing for us to tell our visitors what we want to say but we also want to hear from them what are they engaging with. So this helps us really understand um what is producing that reaction. And when Andy talks about that referral from social media going up so much with the website, that's so important because that shows us that we're showing content that's meaningful enough in social that it's getting people further down the path to actually planning and booking a trip. So that's what we really want to consider when we think about social media. So a lot of people uh talk a lot about followers. We're less interested in that and we're more interest although followers did go up year-over-year, I think about 3% which is positive, not huge. What we're more u focused on is what content are they engaging with? And if you could jump to the next slide. Um what are the total engagements? So engagements would be like they're commenting, they're sharing, if it's an Instagram story, are they clicking back and watching it a few times? Um are they liking it? This is all meaningful um reporting versus just eyeballs looking at content. We want people actually engaging with what we have to say. Um no, I know there's been some comment around too many turtles. I'll say we often use turtles as a gateway into the wildlife experience. That's okay. We take all good feedback. Um we take turtles as a gateway into the rest of the wildlife and that coastal experience that Hilton Head Island has to offer. So um we do see anything that focuses on your beautiful sunrises and sunsets, dolphins, turtles, uh birds in particular lately, um really doing uh extremely good numbers for you. People want to see that content. So, we've really been focused on creating those

short form videos that they want to engage with. And I think this pays off and the results we're seeing around that engagement. That's not to say that we don't want to support arts and culture and history um with the content. We definitely are focused on that. It tends to be a little bit more niche. So, it just might not be as easy to get a comment or like as it is on a baby turtle that's cute, right? But people are still engaging with that content. I I think one one other thing that I want to add to this is like um we spend a lot of time talking about all of the magical reports that Chase is going to be working on every day um to support local events. And we always bring up the notion of like a referral from a website um and like there's different things that can impact tracking um on the partner side once we send those handshakes over. But a big area of focus right now that we're working on with the VCB um and then in turn the destination is understanding how to improve kind of the measurement across the entire island, right? Um, and it this is it comes from our experience in the travel and hospitality space. How um a Marriott or a Hilton property may measure something in terms of the actual booked conversion rate or the lead form that's filled out for a group event versus a momand pop operator or a restaurant operator, right? We understand the technology side of how a Marriott works, how a Hilton works, um how a home and villa operator works. And we're going to be working with with Robert and Chase and the team to kind of adjust our measurement strategy in terms of the data we're passing to the partners in the region so they can pick up a even cleaner handshake. Um, and then track that right through to the booked revenue. Um, so I think like as we continue to talk about like advocacy and communication and collaboration and everything else, it's the sharing of that information just like saying, "Hey, you could submit an event on this

website um to be listed. these are the variables you should be looking for in your data to understand the true value of the DMO and what they're actually pushing for you because there's a wealth of data out there that's going to help that audience work smarter too. Um so just wanted to add that to the mix too.

Price probably going to guess a question I've got and that is we've got this data based on the five pillars under the contract. So how can we compare year overyear if the pillars are changed the refined pillars and if I am interested in going to a place with ecoourism then I still don't know how I find it with the new pillars um so anyhow first of all how do we measure Euro-year with the change and then second of all how do you find ecoourism with the new pillars

please I'm gonna answer the ecoourism so ecourism sorry will be under realm as it's an overarching term, but that is where ecoourism lives and we can break that out if you'd like to see that there just for clarity. Um, but that would be um an opportunity and I think, you know, wellness does so well for us on an overarching effort, but please chime in. But again, going back to the culinary experience, as we take culinary and pull that into its own um area, it will be good to see how that performs independently as we kind of lean into what culinary means for us as a destination and how do we better promote it. So again, we are we are open to holding hands on this, but I think the goal would be that we can better represent the the goals of what we want to achieve together through these new refined pillars. But Steph, was there one more thing? Sure. That's that's great point and I appreciate measuring year over year always so important. The great thing with the social media tool that we use is you can kind of slice and dice and tag content in any way you want. So we could tag it with the new refined pillars in addition to the existing pillars. So we could be measuring continuing to measure things and I think to Ari's point we know these are the strategic pillars of the town of Hilton Head Island and we're going to stay true to them. Those refined pillars are a way we think about it more from a purely a visitor lens. So if I'm external to Hilton Head Island, if I don't really the word wellness doesn't resonate with me, but maybe uh something along the lines of like spa does. So just thinking about how do we really call out the individual pieces of content for for our visitors,

but but we can we can continue to measure things and report year-over-year so you can see that view. Sounds pretty creative. I'll u I'll defer any other comment

so um quick question. You were kind enough to share this which I found to be incredibly helpful and thank you. Um is there a comparison chart? So to Paty's point when you first brought this up I I did my I drew lines where I thought what belonged where. Right. But to to be able to be more in-depth and understand more clearly, is there a comparison chart from the original pillars? I don't think we've missed anything. I stand by my statements previously, but perhaps that might help other people. Keep going.

Right. So, the next bit of the contract was centered around economic impact. So before we got into economic impact, I thought it was important to go over um how tourism marketing is funded. Uh so we like to use the example of the Smith family. The Smith family travels to Hilton Head Island. They either stay at a um short-term rental or a hotel. Uh whichever one they stay at, they're going to pay 10% in taxes. And that 10% tax is made up of a 5% state sales tax, um a 2% state a tax, and a 3% local municipality tax. So, the state sales tax, that 5% goes directly to the state. Um, that's we just never see it again. It goes to the state. Um, of the 2%

it's it's up there.

So, you just of the 2% $25,000 and 5% um is received by the town of Hilton Head Island. um 70% of the remaining uh again this is of the 2% after that $25,000 and 5% is taken out. 70% of that um is going to go uh again to the town of Hilton Head Island. 30% of that 2% is what goes to the DMO uh for destination marketing and then the 3% local municipality tax is received uh also by the town of Hilton Head Island. So I'll bring that up to show here. This is our kind of economic impact slide. So the chart on the right shows the tourism related tax revenue that the town of Hilton Hen Island received. Um so it's further away than I remember it being. Um but that's uh basically the town of Hilton Island collected $45.7 million in uh local tax revenue from tourism related uh taxes this year. That's inclusive of a tax, hax, all those other taxes we talked about on the previous slide. And uh the DMO um received 3.9 million um for tourism marketing. Um and so where do those tax revenues come from on the left here? It's very similar to the one we saw broken out by, you know, a per visitor, but this is the totals that you see for where local businesses are getting their revenue. Um so lodging again makes up a large portion of the visitor spend, but dining culture and experiences are still a core part of what makes Hilton Head Island so special. Now, we're going to speak a little bit, I think, on the media front. Um, as I've kind of chatted with you guys before, as you know, this is um something I look at every single day, every single morning. I'm getting information reports from uh third party sources, critical mention and sision, who the largest in our industry who collect data on if Hilton

Head is so much as being breathed upon or mentioned. than you're thinking then we're going to know about it. Um this is something I we actually track um actually monthly as well. We're looking at it over time and can track those as you can see people are talking uh from an earned media standpoint the stories and mentions uh 264 last year. It's a considerable number and it's one we continue to track. I think it's important to note um as we talk we work really closely with Andy and the team too. It's not always about um you know marketing the awareness. It's about being chosen. It's about remaining in that consideration set and that's what PR helps do helps um others. We also uh track it as well in terms of um remaining within the pillars. This is really important to us. It's a great focus area for us. And we also because those are the stories you want to tell. Those are the stories that you can tell a little more in depth than an ad can do. Um, but as I like to say about media, it is um it is not it's a little bit of a dictatorship. Um, it's a benevolent democracy is what it is. So, you don't you you can put it out there, but the media won't always be there to take the story. So, we're really proud of what we've been able to accomplish recently. You guys are familiar with some of these, but I think I wanted to just really talk about it because I just wanted to speak to the direct pillars we're going for when it comes to ecoourism, when it comes to wellness, and we're watching those trends like crazy. What's resonating? We're watching what's happening in the media. We're watching how people are traveling. That makes a difference. Just to give you an idea, too, I want to talk about this on the Today's Show for this these these hits. We didn't pay a dime for those. Um the paytoplay is considerable with a show like the Today's Show with a broadcast outlet. Just just to give you an example, we've we've had uh destination colleagues in other places

who have done live remotes, whatever. It's it's a million-doll paytoplay to start. So the numbers are considerable. So we're really thrilled with we've been able to develop those relationships, relationships, relationships in partnership with um Weber Shamic and in partnership with others here in the community. As you all know, when we had the live remote here, we didn't pay for the freight for that either. That was paid for by a destination company, not by us. But we sure did get to maximize the content for it. When it comes to that, I talk a little bit again on the next one is is we continue to push for uh heritage, culture, the unknowns. I still find lots of folks who are so interested in our history and culture here. And for us it's about turning one story into two or three stories into four. Just to give you an example um with Ebony this writer we've developed these are two stories in Ebony. The Today show again I'm going to be pitching this year uh want to pitch Junth again of what a great story that would be to the last place freedom was granted to those enslaved and the first place freedom was granted to those enslaved. That's something we pitched last year to them. Um Charleston ended up getting that coverage. But it just goes to to show you a little bit of the mindfulness we're looking at. We also track it by that. I can pull an entire year of give me all the gulla culture for a year. Give me all the things said about Hilton Head Island and biking and our bike trails. What do those look like? But it doesn't just happen by accident. A lot of it is very, very obviously intentional. Not only proactively, but reactively. I'm getting calls every day. It's one of the best parts about what I do is I never know what my phone's going to bring. Sometimes that's great. Sometimes that's not so great. Sometimes it's the coverage you get. Sometimes it's the coverage you don't get.

Um yeah, I think I'd mentioned to you guys before, I may have used this analogy, our our famous saying on the weekends is may everything with four legs and teeth just stay where it's supposed to stay. Um because we watch those trends happen and we can see in real time how much impact we have. Work really closely with the town on that, too. I'm usually sending if I'm seeing something trending, especially if I'm seeing something trending on a negative, it's rare, but it happens. I'm gonna send an email to Heather and to Mark and to Angie saying FYI, this is what I'm seeing. They have their own tracking mechanisms as well, but it's great to be able to compare those. What are you seeing? What are we seeing in that front? Um, when I go to this one, I I want to it's about it's list season. Here we go again. We are all inundated with content. There is so much content out there. Um, people want it narrowed down. They want to know what are the 10 best places. I don't know about you guys, when I'm going through my Apple news feed, um, I'm I'm going through there to find the articles. I want to know what's the hot place to travel. I want to know what's the trend going on right now. And others are doing that as well. Also, as we've talked about prior, and as Andy um said so eloquently, when it comes to headwinds, uh, PR is really important now. Over 80% of AI answers are integrating PR resources. Oh, by the way, did you know Hilton Head was the best of this or the best of that? So those hits really matter and marketing helps amplify those messages too.

Please,

I think that that's like the the great work that we're doing. It's that intersection between social media, traditional search engine optimization, PR, like everything is now working together. Um, and how AI citations we're get into a little bit. I promise we're past the halfway point of the deck. Um but we'll get into it a little bit like at a destination level the um the value of avitorial again you know a media buy on a cond where you actually have something written or a PR hit one of these stories these um readers digest top 10 list all of this is something that the LLMs are really clinging on to for a destination a hotel operator a restaurant on the destination their cycles are a little bit different in terms of what they're looking for we've spent extens ensive time studying this. So you know if Charlie and the team is uh coordinating kind of a PR drop or bringing a fam through you know there is communication internally so our team is aware as well so we can really maximize every hit that we get um thinking beyond just the clippings that you see on the screen here but also thinking about AI citation and you know that's the long that's the digital PR right the long play of of how we can grow the pie

and I think um Steph's gonna come up and talk a little bit more about the brand study and the pulse checks that we do. But just I think again reiterating the collaboration between what Charlie's doing and what our team is doing. I mean it's we're talking multiple multiple times a day into the point of like what can we do more to bring those stories to life and that's where the Preston media page came out of um and using all that again just to reiterate the authority um that the brand has and that the website has when the world is quickly changing. Um, so Steph, if you want to just quickly talk about naturally your favorite and the brand pulse study we did. Sure.

Thanks Ari. Um, thank you Charlie. Uh, I feel like I emailed Charlie so much as well just to talk about collaboration. As soon as soon as I type in C in my two box, it goes right to Charlie. So I think that's evidence. Um, I think one thing we wanted to touch on is earlier you mentioned about um, shoulder season. So there was the discussion about obviously we see we all know that when the traffic starts to drop off. So what we're really trying to do as a collaborative partnership is think about how do we fill that shoulder season with meaningful visitors who care about our ecosystem, who really support our values. So um in the fall of 2025, we launched a new brand awareness campaign, really targeting that season um and really focused on getting new people who align with our values to come and visit which was highly successful. So that's an example of how we're starting to do that. Um part of that campaign was an awareness study. So, it's one thing to say we're going to build awareness, another thing to actually measure it. So, we did run um a three question survey using Spotify um across our demographic. Um and we did find that we had a measurable growth in ad recall. So, that means against the control. Um we saw a growth in people who remembered seeing the Hilton Head Island ad as well as more importantly, we saw a growth in people intending to visit as a direct result of seeing that ad. So that's a way we're continuing to do these quick studies to make sure that we're on track and so we can change course if something doesn't work. Sorry. So, yes, again, the the quick pulse as well as the bigger brand studies um will be done um per the contract, but also just as a best practice when it comes to brand health.

Miss Bryson, I saw you had making a statement comment. Actually, it more towards Sorry, is that Andy? I can't quite read your name tag from Andrew if it's a tough question. Okay, Mr. Andrew. Um now you mentioned AI several times and I always love calling it artificial intelligence but um um but any rate what are people searching for for tour for places to go nowadays? What does AI tell you? What are the top five pla five things people are searching for to go to these days? What are the top five things people in terms of destinations? Yeah.

I mean that's that's pulling on exactly what Charlie is is referencing in this So listical season like it is going to cling to that. It's going to cling to all the top 10 lists that are out there and it's going to and depending on which one you reference cuz we all know some of those are pay to play to actually get on the list for destinations too. Um but then it will actually kind of drive drive down to kind of formulate what those top lists are. Our job um as the destination is to try to get in those conversations, right? and that that's the work that you're doing. It's the work with the influencers, the influencers we're encouraging to actually publish content on our behalf um to get into those niche topics because you could even see like these longtail prompts for for different destinations. I am looking for a resort in Hilton Head Island that offers cultural experiences on property. Like these are real things people are looking at and you need to be the answer to that question when that comes up in addition to the top 10 list which I mean that could change by the month depending on what content is out there.

Same kind of question I just asked yesterday based on where I'm going next. But what what I'm trying to ask is uh what are the top five searches like I want to go someplace different next year. So what are me and all those other people who want to go someplace new or different or interesting, what are they looking for? I think I think are they looking for a beach? Are they looking for food? Are they looking for sports?

That's a great question. Um I wish there was a blanket. These are the top five things. It entirely depends on who you are as a person and where you're kind of interested in. So if we think about categories of things, people are interested in experiences over things again and again. they're interested in multi-gen travel quite significantly. Um, but beyond that, it's to Andy's point, there's no longer five buckets of things. There's uh a million variations. So, for example, for one of the smaller regional or actually the state for Wyoming that we work for, we did the research that Andy's talking about and we found something that people were searching more and more were where can I see wild flowers in Wyoming with my children? That was an actual prompt that people were pulling up. So what we're doing for Hilton Head Island is measuring all of those actual prompts and then coming up with the content to answer them. So we have a really robust editorial content calendar and part of that process is pulling it in. But there is no longer five top 10 things. It it doesn't exist. It's so personalized to the human. But you also have to remember, and this is a real statistic, like if you're talking about Google alone, AI mode, AI overviews, on a daily basis, 15% of all searches on Google daily are net new, never been searched before as it relates to travel because of how personal travel actually is. Um so that that's why that that notion of if if you ask me 12 years ago um where to stay where to eat you know like that was the travel planning mindset where to eat in destination uh but now it is so specific I am looking for a dim sum restaurant in Bluffton that you know is vegan friendly like it's getting that personal um to people

it's no longer SEO driven right it's it's about the conversation that you have with you're correct yeah Yeah. So, um I'm going to push that we keep going. We got a lot more information to go through and let's let's uh pick up speed just a little bit.

All right. So, the next thing we talk about is seasonal impact metrics. Uh per the contract. Uh I think this slide is useful because uh to Steve's point earlier, um the visitor number we saw earlier is inclusive of everyone that comes to the island, whether they're overnight, whether they are day trippers, or whether they are second homeowners who were here um you know, part of the year. So this metric actually looks at paid visitors who are staying in a hotel or a home and villa. And so what you see what you can see here is our home and villa market really peaks in June and July which I don't think should surprise anybody. But I do want to specifically call out how hotels are much more resilient as we move into that shoulder season. Their dip in occupancy is much slower and much less defined than homeavilas in the same time period.

Okay. Stakeholder satisfaction survey. We're going to go through it relatively quickly since um um since we were going to be seeing it soon. I know we have dates set up to kind of talk with everybody on this. So um I think what's important to note overall the net net is things are headed in the right direction.

I want to remind everyone that this is a survey we send out in the debt of summer. We want to know when you're feeling it. We want to know in the moment. We're not sending it out in January. It's done by a third party MMGY Global. They do this for destinations all over the country and it is incredibly accurate. You won't find a researcher, a valid researcher in the country who would tell you that um this survey is not strong in its response. It has a plus or minus 1.4% and by contract it does fulfill over 3,000 responses to the point where in some cases I've mentioned to you guys what the MMGY tells us you can stop now because you're not your responses aren't going to change. They're going to remain the same on that front. So look at the trends. I think that's what's important to look when you look at the waves and waves are years. That's all they are. Um, fancy research terms for years. You look at that, you can see residents get it. They get the importance of tourism. They understand um it's extremely important to the local economy. So, we're pleased to see that number heading in a positive direction, trending on that. Let's look at stakeholder satisfaction survey. No big surprise. People think it's crowded in the summer. Um, that's something that MMGy sees across all of their destinations. But what I do think is important to note, look at the number. Look at the number there. How it's trending for this wave too crowded. That number's actually headed down a little bit. That's the direction you want to see. You want to see that direction moving downward. And we're pleased to see on the others where folks see, for example, spring just right. That's the larger number of that grouping. So, we're looking at these and tracking where we are seasonally. When we look at do people get it, do they get the positives? Just to give you an idea, what are the positives on tourism? We also ask this question on what are the negatives. We don't just want the the candy coated answer to that. But when we're asking them the

positives, they get that it generates the tax revenue, the jobs, increases real estate values. That's an important one. Is uh Councilman Brown mentioned so much it comes to the real estate and selling homes here as well. who's going to buy the next home. We all know who buys the next home and that's usually those who have visited here before. So that matters. So those are trending in the right direction. Uh this one I think is really um important. I put this in and these are some of these questions that I want to make sure y'all you can utilize this obviously for your own. That's why I think it's so important to communicate them to you is when you're looking at whatever it is for safety or what are the top issues your residents told you. they told you what they are. So often when you're hearing a little chatter here, a little chatter there, is that a trend or is that real or is that just somebody's personal opinion? Does that really resonate across the board? This survey can help tell you that. So when you look at the stakeholder satisfaction survey, the the number still high in terms of 84% of residents agree that Hilton Head Island is a very safe place to live. It's a high number compared to other destinations. This one's interesting. This tells us where there's some opportunities to be had when it comes to educating our residents on how tourism is funded. We also I hit the road. I talk one- on-one and talk in groups all the time. I'm constantly communicating out there. I welcome the questions. It gives me an idea of where we are. This one trends. It's interesting. 69% of folks think they know where it comes from. But if you look at those red arrows, that's actually where marketing comes from. visitors pay for future visitor marketing. So, it's important to note that many residents believe their their resident taxes pay for that or their local sales tax, their own property taxes. Not the case. It's funded from three different sources. We asked the question too in this way. I think the perception on town funding do does the

town fund tourism marketing? Technically, it does not in a sense that we're not taking money out of a pot from something else or going there. It's all funded by a tax through private funding and through state funding. So, more education to do there. Uh, this next one, I love this slide. I really do. Um, pride rose to an all-time high. 89% of residents saying they're extremely or very proud to be residents of Hilton Head Island. Other destinations dream about that number. They really do. At the end of the day, it's a strong number. um compared to all of MMGY's destinations that they survey, it's the highest one they see. So, that's good. That gives you some comparison as well to what other what other residents are saying. Here's the question. This is an interesting one. We ask them now every year, what do you think are the hot buttons? What are the top concerns facing our community? And you can see what those are from a residential standpoint. And you can see how they're trending. 278 quarter project continues to trend upward in terms of is it a top concern from wave two to wave five workforce shortage. No, no, no surprise there. We still do have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the state of South Carolina, if not the lowest. And overall development, look at how that one's popped up. That's something you guys are dealing with on a regular basis. Um, you've asked us for the the member survey. So when I pull that member survey, that's something we send out. As I mentioned, I've done it for 25 years. We send it out to our members. It's a pretty robust list of over 3,000 yet the member survey. And let's turn the page on that. Let's take a look as we see what their concerns are. And you'll see some some mirrors. You'll see some surprises. Um we also ask obviously this is our membership survey. We want to know how are we doing? We ask that question. We

want to be able to adjust our programs, our advocacy, whatever it may be. So, we're pulling that number from stakeholder satisfaction survey. Uh over 80% 80.2% um believe that their partnership adds value to their business as a whole. That's a positive number we want to see. Um we ask about our involvement in the community. Do you feel that we're a contributor? That's also a positive number. And then also for this number, I think this is Isn't this the ultimate in how likely are you to recommend something, the restaurant, the hotel, the destination, whatever it would be? How likely are you to recommend chamber membership to another business? That number sits at 86% for very likely and likely. So, we want to see those trending in the same direction, too. for me. I'm so sorry. Thank you. Um I'll get it right for next time. The uh look, we've looked back and we have some really good um feedback and some foundational pieces that we're taking forward into what we're proposing for 2627. We have seen that proposed budget. So this if comfortable or timing is there, we can look at how those would be allocated if you want. Um but it I would leave that to you if you if you want to take that time to go through.

What does the rest of council think? So we're just going to look at like the marketing and PR efforts of how we propose the budget if you'd like to if you're okay with it. Okay. Forward. We're going to go. Okay. Going to go quickly. I promise. Go for it.

Okay. So again, advertising. This would be section one of the budget. So, if we go back and I'm just actually gonna pull out my budget since if we're looking at overall when we're proposing for the um section one of the of the Turk um document that we propose, there are several things that fall into um advertising, which is print, digital, broadcast, social media. Um and what we see in there is going to be a mix of those. I will say that the strategy moving forward into 2627 speaks to all the detail that we just discussed. We are leaning into this large language model AI artificial intelligence focused digital social first approach. And so when you look at the budget specifically in that section you will see the budget aligning to those categories um of focus. And there will be complimentary efforts again with our thirdparty media buys and those would be such as um the Smithsonian condass traveler um and they would be a um we wouldn't approach it just with a single advertising and a print piece but we would complement that with digital social through their platforms um but again in this section our efforts will really drive towards digital social first and um I wanted to emphasize I'm going let Andy speak to it but the old waiver versus the new way. I always love a visual, so hopefully this helps.

So, we've talked about this quite a lot today, so I'll move pretty quickly, but obviously to Ari's point, the old way, you know, we uh we're all accustomed to um I know we use Google because they're the giant here, but people running two search engines, be it Bing, be it Google, um you know, finding the answer that they wanted u and then clicking through to the website to get more information. you know that has changed uh today in the context that you know the new way people are are going to you know Google search they could be going to a perplexity a chat GBT a claude um type engine to kind of get the answer that they want directly there um there is the narrative in the marketplace that websites like what's the value of the DMO website or a website in general um the value of that is websites are knowledge bases right that's how we are going to infl influence that conversation um the answers that are being cited in these resources and you know an AI agent um you know let's assume I'm completely new to brand I've never visited Hilton Head Island before um I'm going to be able to do my discovery get the answer to the question on those agents but there is something to be said for brand experience right going through and capturing you know the essence of of what it's like to visit one of the properties here um what is it like to experience the beaches and this is where all of these media assets are video content, everything else. It doesn't mean that that can't be surfaced in those engines too. U but we are still seeing more people click through through a citation or through to your point earlier traditional organic search. And I I failed to reference this earlier, but when we are seeing kind of the declines in organic search the way that we are, the silver lining that we're seeing there is the people that are taking the time to scroll and click on that are highly engaged and they convert at a extremely higher rate than they would have traditionally. Um and in in our hotel portfolio I will tell you

organic visitation it may be on the decline but 20 20 to 30% higher conversion rate than what we would traditionally because they really want the product. they've taken the time. I think we I think we've spoken to it. Um but again reiterating the importance of being um engaged both on the SEO and the GEO and really understand I know you're going to go forward, but I think it's reemphasizing the authority component of it. We need to ensure that we're the authority.

Yeah. And and really how we do this focusing on to Steph's point earlier really publishing content that will be the answer to the question. Um, we we use the philosophy internally, bluff, bottom line, upfront, like answer the question right away. There's a reason why you're seeing a common framework even on news websites where it's like here's the headline, here's the bulleted list of what you're about to read and if you really want to read it, here's the rest of the content. So, taking that approach with a lot of these niche topics, making sure that the technical health of the platform is constantly being scrutinized, constantly being improved. We have um some technical improvement um exercises we're going through in 2026 to really um create a more lightweight framework for these AI friendly um components that we're about to deploy. And then those off-page elements, anybody that's been in this industry for a long time, you know, link building is the most tedious part um yet still like more relevant than ever really um in terms of building those citations back to the website and really telling an LLM or a traditional search engine, wow, this website is the authority. There's all of these artifacts on the internet that are saying it's the authority, too. Let's score its content higher when we're trying to develop our responses and questions. And and really this is what we view as the opportunity. Um like I said, bluff become the answer, right? So no longer is it the day of just having a a static DMO framework. Um you know, where you have like a a where to stay section and listings, you know, um and we're not fans of the word blog, but it's relevant, right? Topical articles. How can we publish contentrich articles that are going to capture these niche niche conversations? Very similar to my example earlier, right? How do I find a hotel that offers on property cultural experience? If somebody asked that question, let's answer it. Um the website, excuse me. Um back, please. Uh

making sure that we're standing out in AI, so those clean structured pages, the um the the schema tag, structured data that we can include behind the scenes. We're doing a lot of work with the um with Tara and the team in the mice space right now. Like we haven't even really spoken about that in great detail today. Um, but you know, the the new landscape that we're in, consumers are researching vacations with AI. Guess what? Meeting planners are looking for destinations to host events with AI. That's a whole other beast, and we have a strategy wrapped around that as well. Andy, not to cut you short, but I but but the the the backside of it, I don't think we need to get into that much of it. We understand that that it's changed from an SEO SEO to an AI, which is different everything else. So,

let's keep it going. But it's fascinating. Yes, it is. It is just rethinking KPIs. We touched on this in the beginning here, but you know, the fact that we need to get comfortable with the fact that organic search will decline, right? But there's new ways to be found. So, we'll spend a lot of time in our reporting in the upcoming year kind of going over these different metrics. That's what we want to know. Yeah, there you go. So, we are going to include these new metrics uh moving forward. And to Chase's point in his bulleted list, that's why those were added there as well.

Yes. Yeah. Um and really like to to to sum it up um you know everything that we do moving forward is taking this kind of AI lens. Um GEO um generative engine optimization is the new digital PR. We want to make sure that we're in the conversation. So every collaboration, everything Charlie's doing, every aspect of the marketing program is focused on that um as one of the core pillars. How was that? Good. Nice. Great. Perfect. And again, we can move quickly through this slide.

Um, again, I'm a visual person and I think this just helps demonstrate how the journey works and we've spent a lot of time today talking about that journey. The journey is different. Um, but yet we need to meet them where they are and this is how we're doing it by giving them the answer right up the front and taking them through that journey for conversion. If we want to work through a little bit further on the slides, I just want to show you some visuals. Next slide. Um, you know, we talked quickly about that pulse check on on the brand. This is what we were showcasing out on the market. We launched naturally together in a need time frame. Need being the um late fall, early winter to drive people to the destination site to engage them through not only beautiful, rich um imagery and video, but also something that made them feel connected, right? And that is what is most important when they're asking these really deep questions of what can I do specifically to meet the needs of my family during vacation. we brought that forward with some of these um efforts visually. So you're just going to see these across different print and social um touch points and then one more click you can see how we take that through the different um touch points of the destination to really resonate um with what they comes across all of our digital touch points as well um our digital front door the um website of hiltonhead island.org or as well as all of our social media. So fulfillment, one piece that we did touch on in fulfillment and we will um work through and happy to talk about this a little further is um the fulfillment component of the vacation planner will remain within the budget and this is being treated much similarly to how we would deploy digital ads um social ads. We feel this is an extension of that request. This is being requested and placed in um position of the biggest touch points that we know our consumers and travelers um um engage with this book. Whether that be an online request, a walk-in or a phone call request. It's also at every single one of our eight

South Carolina um welcome centers as well as all the AAA offices, all of our trade shows, as well as any of the media opportunities that we have. So, this touch point from a fulfillment standpoint is something we'll be keeping in terms of another touch point of the brand

right and I'll um speak uh briefly on marketing support which is uh creative photography videography and then my portion which is research and I'll just kind of talk about like our overarching research strategy and that is as I mentioned earlier it's not just about um who our visitors are but it's also the impact they have on the community when they're here um so a big part of that first is getting actionable insights owes to who those visitors are through places like Zardico, Pler AI, our surveys, using that to inform marketing decisions and then working with our research partners once they're here to figure out the impact they're having on their island and making sure that they're bringing a good uh increase to the quality of life for island residents.

Then we have some group sales and marketing. Um, Chase, Tara, I I think we can speak quickly about just how we're going to take and I will say this is really between um the human touch and the digital tech touch in terms of what Andy was talking about and how we've optimized this portion of the website to complement the needs of today's travel planner um and in having Tara and her team um lead the charge. So, I don't know if there's anything specific that you want to speak to on that. The only other thing I'll add is again um a lot of our group sales strategy is informed by working closely with our hotel community here on the island. We meet regularly with uh the GMs and the DOSMS to make sure we're aligned on the kind of business they're looking for and that the business we're bringing to the island um matches um the demographic we're going for and um particularly comes in those shoulder seasons and has those high ADRs, high economic impact while they're here. And we've spent a considerable amount of time with Tara with Verb to understand how we can make that touch point of the website be an extension of the team. So if someone's looking for curated itineraries or looking for um specific details about a hotel, they're wanting to meet us um and understanding a little bit more from the group's perspective, we're able to offer that specifically through the website and through Terara's followup. Just a quick few bullets to let you know in the this year uh ahead we're going to be continuing to do what's resonating and it's interesting from a trend perspective. Uh we're getting a lot of interest in 250 ton of interest in that. Um we've worked very closely with our partners at um Heritage Library with um just just everyone around town with Bufort County in this effort. So we'll be seeing a lot of that. I can't tell you how many media I whether I'm in person or they're calling me going tell me what you got in this arena. So that

was interesting I thought. Um we also have uh we're looking at the spring col c culinary sustainability tying together our environment and what comes from that and for us a lot of times that's food and so that's a really important um aspect of what we're doing. Just to give you an idea too we're doing this year a RBC Heritage Media Trip. We're doing this in partnership with Weber Shanwick. And again, this talks about the affiliation and the power of partnerships. Zerek is also another one of their clients. Well, wouldn't it be great if you took the official PGA allergy sponsor, which who knew? Um, and tied that together with a trip for media. And so, it's not just about golf they'll be covering. We've got phenomenal media coming in for it. Thus far, we've got Forbes, we have Golf Week, we have Parade. Um, we're in talks right now with Good Morning America. So, there's a lot of conversations being had, but we're happy to tie that back and it'll be tied back to travel. And I thought, let's just end on a high note. I I thought it would be great to remind us, we all know this. Um, we live in a beautiful, amazing place and other people take notice of that. Again, this talks about the list that we're always on. And just to clarify Andy's point, not a single list we're on has ever is not paid for. Those are all earned um earned spots on those lists. And we're very proud of that. When you think about people, people people save up throughout the year to spend one week of their lives where we live. And so I think I applaud you. I applaud town council for for staying pure to that and true to that and working together with us to make sure that that's recognized and and what we all value so much remains what we all value. Thank you.

With that, that uh concludes our our presentation. I certainly want to say thank you to council for allowing us to have this time. I want to thank Mr. Orlando for uh uh bringing us together, pushing it forward. And then uh Angie and I can tell you when we were when the team was here for the first uh presentation of it, uh first discussion of it, there was there was quite quite a bit of uh uh directional change along the way and that's thanks to uh Angie and and Mr. Bird there. So, it's been a nice team effort, collaborative effort, and we appreciate that. Thank you.

Well, I you know, not not not speaking for all of council, but um to be able to to sit here today and go through the next year, have a better understanding with input. Yes, there's some things that we want to see, some additional things, and um and some things that we need to do as well. Um it it puts us in a better position, and I think that's what everybody's been looking for. So, you've got your label. Thank you.

Um, yes. Again, uh, thank you. This is the most conversation we've ever had and back and forth regarding something that is so important and so critical to our town. And that's why we wanted to have a workshop uh, type of format. And uh, although we've spent a lot of time, part of it is is because this is the first time we've done this in this fashion. So we have a lot of questions and comments and and want to understand and learn. Um and again um you know I want to focus on the uh expense of marketing plan. there's some things that need to be done whether it's going back to the old format or I can see how you've aligned it to your marketing plan but making sure that we have something compared to last year uh so that we can see uh what has changed and how you're changing the spend of your dollars I think would be uh helpful. Thank you.

Other comments? Yeah. Um Mr. Brown.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And uh I wanted to I don't always take notes. I took a couple at the beginning. Mr. Miles said we wanted to accomplish three things. Partnership, input, and collaboration. I feel like we've done that this evening. Um and to my son's point, it took a little longer because we have not done it before. So I applaud um you know all parties involved to get us to this point to have this discussion. Um now with with that um said you need on stone and Mr. Bird and Mr. bird is really good about presenting to the FNA committee not a whole big long packet of information but more importantly the things that we've asked about okay focus in there so I just encourage us as we come back together the notes that you've taken that that be our focus okay because there's a lot of background to all of it and I I think we've gotten past the point of trusting one another the community trusting. Let's get to the point of where are our gaps and how can we collectively work on those gaps. I think that's where we need to focus our attention when we get back together. That's just something I wanted to point out. Now, one of those gaps is uh what Miss Bryson brought up earlier with the uh the golf relationship. All right. And y'all know I don't mind laying my hair down and getting the elephant on the table so we can start bite-sizing it. Golf is important to us. Obviously, very important. if our experts have turned it into a sort of standalone pillar, so to speak. Okay? And we also know that we've got private organizations that are going to fund themselves when it comes to marketing, okay? But it can't work in silos. It has to work together. Obviously, there's a partnership between the industry and our DMO. How do we

solidify that? I don't know if that's an agreement. I don't know if it's a resolution, but we got to solidify it so that we all understand it. All right? And I think we need to get to that sooner than later. Those are my comments, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Becker.

So, I just wanted to take a moment. I said what I wanted to say previously about how important I feel like this entire meeting has been. Um, but I also want to take a moment and um really I guess the right word is congratulate. um commend what an incredible staff you have, Bill. The professionalism, the attention to detail, the ability to explain it in a way that all of us can understand is remarkable and I appreciate it and I hope that everyone who's listening does as well. Um while I may not understand the technology, I do understand surveys and I do understand results. I'd love to be able to put pieces together so I can get a bit better picture of it all. Um but congratulations, wonderful staff. Thank you Angie and Dave for all the work that y'all have been doing. Mark, I know it's been a lot and um I think we are heading in a great space. So,

thank you Miss Bryson.

Yes, I want to thank you for the time spent today. I think it is helpful to do a workshop because the quarterly reports while uh they're full of data sometimes we sit there glossed over by data and go like I don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing up here. Um but um and and I'm going to be hard on you. you know, I am I'm going to ask tough questions. Um, and I I I will keep asking the tough questions and I'm going to find more tough questions because frankly, the community is tough on us. Our community expect us to find um a relationship with someone we can hold accountable. It's a lot of money to spend and it's it's a lot of impact on our community. Tourism is. And we've got to do it right and we've got to be out in the open about it. And I like that we're putting a lot of data. That's why I said stop just a moment. Let's look at that website you were talking about. And I then I gave the off, you know, hand comment. All I have to do is think about it and I'll find it. Um, but it's really important that we have all this information out in front of the public. Um, and I think that I hope the public will appreciate a lot of the discussion we had, a lot of the questions that we ask. Uh, because the community is hard on us and so we're going to be hard on y'all.

We're going in the right direction. That that's the important thing. So, thank you all. Um, Kim, do we have anybody signed up to speak? We do. Okay. Um, Christopher Cliff, believe I saw him leave. Yeah. Did he Did he head out? Yes. Mayor Deckard

did not see her. Richard busy afternoon and go run. Great presentation today. Good questions. But something to me was missing. My 40 plus years of experience in public relations has taught me that the experience a tourist has on Hilton Head is as important, if not more important than any other of the other data you heard about today. impressions, views, number of clicks, number of brochures sent out, etc., etc. People will forget what you said. They'll forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. A rude waitress at a restaurant, a disinterested hotel employee at a dis or or a disrespectful employee at a golf course can cause a family to say, you know, in driving home, we're never going back to Hilton Head. 96% of customers say that customer service influences their brand loyalty. According to Salesforce, 90 88 89% rather of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive service experience. That's how powerful service can be. Known in the business as the smart marketing guy, Kevin Stirtz says, "The greatest and most powerful way to increase customer loyalty is really very simple. Make your customers happy. So in our case here on Hilton Head, that translates into making your tourist happy. Provide an experience second to none. Philip Cutotler, regarded as the father of modern marketing by many scholars, says the best advertising was done by satisfied customers. With that as a backdrop, I was very disappointed to learn about the status of the Hilton Head Island

Ambassador Program at USCB. The program is currently under review and no new programming is planned at this time. Tourism loyalty for Hilton Head Island was the goal of the island ambassador program which certified over 2800 ambassadors. The program was intended to help employees exceed customer expectations and empower participants to engage at a higher level with guest. To my critics who complain that all I do is complain here at this podium and do nothing more, I strongly suggest that the town find the funds, whether they be a tax funds or otherwise, be used to revitalize the now dormant island ambassador program or something similar. It can do far more than some of the projects the chamber has proposed year after year. And as a an aside, if I were running the chamber, Mr. Miles, I would spend twice as much on public relations and social media by cutting the paid advertising budget. PR is much more powerful than paid advertising. Thank you very much. Thank you,

Skip Hogland. Um, it's not about it's about illegal acts, not a presentation. If a town council member votes to approve action based on legal advice from a town lawyer or manager that is deemed not only illegal but criminal, all parties involved, the council member, the town manager, and the attorney may face severe legal, civil, and professional consequences. Following the advice of counsel is generally not an absolute defense to committing a crime, particularly if the official do or should have known the action was illegal. Here's a breakdown of what happens to those involved. Consequences for council members. If the vote was cast with criminal intent or reckless disregard for the law, the member can be charged with crime such as conspiracy, malfeasants in office, or misuse of public funds. Following legal vice is is usually not a a valid defense if the action is knowingly criminal. While public officials are often protected from personal liability for decisions made in good faith under the doctrine and qualified immunity and state tort act claims acts, this immunity is typically lost when the official acts outside the scope of their authority and commits criminal acts. Criminal charges can lead to automatic suspension or removal from office. Violation of state ethics laws which can lead to hefty fines typically applied if the council member benefited from the vote and go to the chamber ball. Consequences for town lawyer disbarment suspension providing legal advice that facilitates a crime is a severe violation of professional conduct rules and it's worse if the lawyer uh knows it's criminal or fraudulent. Criminal charges. The attorney can be charged as a co-conspirator or as a accomplice to the crime. The town can sue the attorney for legal malpractice and the attorney may lose

professional liability coverage as policies often exclude uh for criminal acts such as drafting the illegal fraudulent chamber DMO contract. Consequences for the town manager. Similar to the council member, if the manager knowingly presented illegal advice or manipulated the council to approve a criminal act, they can be criminally charged. Immediate termination. Consequences for the municipality. Any action or contracts approved by council can be rendered void or invalid. The town may face lawsuits from citizens or businesses damaged by the illegal town and chamber actions. Town is in violation of foyer laws. Ignorance. Ignorance of the law. I didn't know it was illegal. It's not a defense even if a lawyer said it was legal. Fact is, it's not about the chamber presentation. It's about the receipts and invoices on where millions was used in USA and Canada. It's there's no secret sauce laws. In fact, the chamber has committed tax evasion to the IRS and unfairly competing with local media, including the island packet here with us today. I asked you all to clean it up and stop all this nonsense that you're talking about the act. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Kim, that's all we have. That's all we have. Um 601. Uh thank you. Thank you all for your time and your input today. Do I have a motion to adjourn? So move. All in favor? We got it. We'rejourned. Thank you.