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DocuSign Envelope ID:54EAOF14-1593-4CDB-B6D6-05BA2AB8F6C5
<br /> For Approval March 17, 2021
<br /> Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau
<br /> Virtual Board of Directors Meeting
<br /> February 17,2021
<br /> Board Members Present: Pam Hemminger, Manish Atma, Aubrey Williams,Tanya Moore, Anthony
<br /> Carey, Kayla Dempsey, Mark Bell, Sam Vadgama, Lydia Lavelle, Beverly Payne, Mark Sherburne, Daniel
<br /> Mayer, Spring Council,Jon Hartman-Brown, Shannan Campbell, and Sally Greene.
<br /> Not Present: Matt Gladdek
<br /> Staff Attendance:Steve Brantley, Laurie Paolicelli, Marlene Barbera, Patty Griffin,Tina Fuller, Susan
<br /> Rice, Leslie Wilcox, and Katie Murray.
<br /> Also present: Tim Hoke. Lisa Ganzzermiller, General Manager, AC Hotel by Marriott, Chapel Hill.
<br /> Dennis Edwards, President&CEO, Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau. Lee Davis, Managing
<br /> Partner, Clean Design, Inc. Jessica Herschaft, Group Business Director, Clean Design, Inc.
<br /> Call to Order
<br /> Chair, Anthony Carey called the meeting to order at 8:04 a.m.
<br /> Approval of Minutes
<br /> Chair Anthony Carey requested a motion to approve the January 20, 2021 minutes. Mayor Pam
<br /> Hemminger so moved and Mark Sherburne seconded the motion. With all members in favor,the
<br /> minutes were approved as submitted.
<br /> Executive Director's Report
<br /> Laurie Paolicelli spoke of the Visitors Bureau 2021-2022 budget preparations and occupancy tax
<br /> projections for the coming year.
<br /> • Since March 2020 hotel revenue in Orange County is down 32.3 million or just about 70%and room
<br /> night demand was down 200,894 room nights representing 57.2%decline.
<br /> • To give you a perspective on how the hotel revenues feed into the overall impact in Orange County,
<br /> in 2018, Orange County's tourism industry generated $208 million, in 2019 it generated $218
<br /> million, and in 2020 it is estimated to generate $98 million. That is an estimated loss of$120
<br /> million. This is devastating for the economy in terms of payroll,jobs lost, and loss of tax revenue.
<br /> • Our sense right now is a slower spring and summer in terms of large events and gatherings.
<br /> Currently,to our knowledge, all events not associated with the university are cancelled. So,we are
<br /> busy administratively, rebooking event dates from 2021 to 2022 or later. The new rules regarding
<br /> group gathering limits are presenting challenges in how we book our event and conference spaces.
<br /> So, we are starting from scratch with all our conference materials.
<br /> • We hope for recovery in 2022 but that recovery is highly dependent on some major events here in
<br /> Orange County such as UNC commencement and sports.
<br /> • Our tourism marketing program moving forward will focus on the leisure traveler coming from our
<br /> local region of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and other parts of North Carolina.
<br /> Mark Sherburne asked "How are you balancing for your fixed costs and still being able to allocate
<br /> dollars to promote us?"
<br /> Laurie answered "We are a department of county government and we are currently going through
<br /> the budget process now. They are asking for a lot of projections and forecasts and,from our
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