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VisitorsSureau ,ice W ATTACHMENT 7 -b Orange County and Chapel Hill Joint Meeting March 2013 Tourism Highlights The following is a synopsis of tourism - related initiatives from the Visitors Bureau: Increase in demand for rooms as evidenced by Chapel Hill's room rates climbing again after a rate slump for two years. Although occupancy continued to grow, the rate had not yet met the levels we hoped. Currently, performance is stronger with demand and revenues growing. For the calendar year of January- December 2012 compared to January- December 2011, hotel revenues in Chapel Hill are up 3% and demand is up 4.5% for overall aggregate revenues in 2012 at $36 million. Rates were strong in January 2013 at a growth of 4.1 % over previous year. New renovations at area hotels are giving us the opportunity to welcome more groups, mid -week, in corporate and association sectors. Group Sales Recently, a shift in -local tourism activity has consisted of enhanced focus of the group sales. Based on numbers, we are seeing this sector performing at 50% of overall visitation (as compared to 30% just five years ago). To meet the growing potential of group business, the VB has hired a new sales associate who will cultivate additional mid -week business for Chapel Hill Hotels. The Sales Department along with 10 industry partners recently hosted an inbound tour for 23 meeting planners from Raleigh, RTP, Greensboro and Charlotte on January 15, 2013. The tour focused on ten meeting facilities in Chapel Hill.