02-23-17 CVB__ A,
Isl i
LAS CP\UCES
Advisory Board Meeting
Thursday, February 23, 2017
9:00 am
Members Present: Ana Berrun — Townplace Suites Marriot
Craig Massey — NM Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum
Shannon Vallez Duffy — Heritage Hotels and Resorts
Absent: Debra Marks — Las Cruces Symphony Association
Vince Vaccaro — Lorenzo's Restaurant
Others Present: Jennifer Bales (CVB), Chris Faivre (CVB), Rochelle Miller -
Hernandez (CVB), Elizabeth Vega, (CVB) and Kenny Valenzuela
(CC).
L CALL TO ORDER —The meeting was called to order at 9:09 a.m.by Chairperson
Duffy.
II. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM January 26, 2017 Ms. Duffy
called for a motioned to approve the minutes from the January 26, 2017
Advisory Board Meeting. Ms. Berrun moved to approve the motion. Mr. Massey
seconded. All members were in favor. Passed 3-0.
III. PRESENTATIONS AND REPORTS
Executive Directors Report — Jennifer Bales — Rochelle Miller -Hernandez will
be giving the sales report for this meeting would like to start something new with
the board and having sales staff present the sales report and any upcoming
events. This is a good opportunity for the Board to meet some of the other staff
that work in the office and what they do. Elizabeth Vega is assisting in this meeting
as Veronica Quezada is out this morning. Elizabeth has been with the City for 9
years now and is the Sales and Services Coordinator, she assists with events,
proofreading and any other tasks that come along regarding Convention and
Visitors Bureau. Update from last meeting we are moving out of this current
building and must be out by the end of May. We will be moving to the north side of
the Municipal Court building. Once the Country Music Festival is over we will start
packing and moving into this building. New building tentatively will be done in
October. Shannon stated the next board meeting will be March 30, 2017 and the
meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn Express North. The Rio Grande Theater
decision has not been decided on, have not heard the direction of where the status
is or who will be managing the theater. Last week the expansion of the Convention
Center closed, is now in the finance office and will see where this goes This board
meets annually eight times a year with June, July, November and December off
and we only must meet four times a year as mandatory. Jennifer proposed that
during the Country Music Festival in April that this meeting be canceled or moved
to a month we do not normally meet, with the festival and move this will be a busy
time to have the meeting.
Ms. Berrun made a motion to move that the April meeting for 2017 be cancelled.
Mr. Massey seconded. Passed 3-0.
Sales Report — Rochelle Miller -Hernandez - Rochelle is the Tourism Sales
person for the office and her role is to promote Las Cruces to tour operators, tour
developers, individual travelers by creating packages and itinerary's, attending
trade shows doing products developments and now working on social media
twitter and Instagram. Recently had the opportunity to refresh the decor at the Las
Cruces airport as some of the entertainers will be coming through and some of the
Film Festival entertainers will be coming through as well making a good
impression for the City of Las Cruces. April 7t" and 8t" there will be a tournament
and this is the weekend of Garth Brooks, mostly all the rooms are sold out. Ed will
be communicating to the tournament directors they may have to stay in El Paso.
Occupancy is 51 % which is down 1.8% from last year, for January. ADR is
69.33% down 1.1 % and RevPar 35.35% down 2.9%.
Media Report — Chris Faivre — Web report shows Albuquerque biggest market
out of Las Cruces, Dallas has crept up. Two markets we are targeting Dallas and
Tucson we are continuing to promote more to these specific areas. There is a
typo on the report shows two San Antonio's as number eight should be Los
Angeles. Paradise Nevada kept climbing and ran the stats for this month was the
same from last month still not sure where this is coming from. Social media doing
well growing our audience, doing weekly engagements to promote Country Music
Festival, all tied into a blog post. Ticket sales are a lot higher than last year. Have
a total of six freelance writers for the festival and the attractions around New
Mexico, they will be here during Country Music Festival writing different articles
about Las Cruces. New website launched and is doing well, larger photos and
enjoyable for users has more functionality for users. Now that the website is up
and running now we will be beginning a new app that should be completed in
April. The Sun News can no longer publish our visitors guide so we are now
working with the Bulletin, merging our visitors guide and their newsletter this
should come out by summer.
NEW BUSINESS
Kenny Valenzuela with the Convention Center stated that they just booked the
twelfth convention for fiscal year 2017 and are still lacking two more to reach the
benchmark for the year. Expansion coming up and once dates are final will be
able to advertise. Currently have 3 positions open, sales manager, director, and
executive chef.
Shannon stated there was an Air B&B article stating that they pay taxes. What
would we need to do to make this happen, would this be Visit Las Cruces or the
Advisory Board. Jennifer stated she will consider what Albuquerque and Santa Fe
did to complete this possibly an ordinance.
V. ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 1
Approved on: ���,/r� _ 1,-:4
Shannon Duffy; Chair, Las Cruces Convention & Visitors Bureau
Board