DEPARTMENT: San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Casandra Matej
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-Wide
SUBJECT:
Foreign Representative Services for San Antonio Tourism Industry in Mexico
SUMMARY:
An Ordinance authorizing a three-year Professional Service Agreement with Ad Nova Comunicacion Estrategica S.C. (Ad Nova) for foreign representative services assisting the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) in its marketing and tourism efforts in Mexico, in an amount not to exceed $100,000.00 per year, with an option to renew for one additional two-year (2) term, subject to City Council approval.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On an annual basis, the San Antonio's hospitality industry has an economic impact of $12 billion, brings in 30 million visitors, employs more than 112,000 workers and has a $2.2 billion payroll. The CVB is the entity primarily charged with promoting and marketing San Antonio as a premier convention and meetings destination and a domestic and international visitor destination, for the purpose of positively affecting the City's economy.
One of the important tasks for destination management and marketing organizations is to identify potential markets for growth. The CVB vision is to position San Antonio as Mexico's preferred global destination for tourism. The CVB completed its last contractual year with the prior agency which expired on September 30, 2013. The RFP was released on June 26, 2014 and closed on August 1, 2014. A six-member Evaluation Committee with representatives from the private sector coupled with CVB staff reviewed the responses and performed a thorough review of all written responses. The Committee also received presentations from three short-listed firms (Ad Nova, Global Marketing & Sales and Outside the Box Productions). The Committee recommends Ad Nova as the firm in view of the fact that it received the highest collective score from the evaluation categories (Experience, Background and Qualifications; Proposed Plan; Price Schedule; SBE Prime Contract Program; M/WBE Prime Contract Program; Local Preference Ordinance and Veteran Owned Small Business Preference Program Ordinance).
Ad Nova will assist the CVB in expanding the CVB's marketing and tourism efforts in Mexico and will promote tourism resources to designated audiences. Ad Nova has extensive experience with key strategic partners in all areas of tourism development around the country, such as airline market leaders, major trade associations, key players in meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions (MICE) and leisure industry, government high-level network (federal, state, and local levels), wholesale operators, travel agencies and online travel agencies in Mexico. The overall goals of this partnership are to establish a comprehensive understanding of the Mexico market that will lead to promising opportunities for (1) enticing new visitors, (2) getting current visitors to increase their frequency of visitation, (3) increase length of stay and (4) increase the amount spent when visiting.
An overview of the foreign representative services contract scope of services includes promoting tourism resources, creating and sustaining an accurate image and/or understanding of San Antonio and developing promotional campaigns coordinated with the CVB in order to promote and market San Antonio as a premier leisure visitor and convention/meeting destination.
In order to increase the awareness and number of visitors to San Antonio from Mexico, primary services and activities performed by Ad Nova under this contract include the following:
I. Operational Services
a. Provide communication needs/services (e.g. telephone line, fax, email address)
b. Provide storage for CVB collateral materials
c. Submit monthly activity reports
d. Secure courier and postal services for shipping and transporting CVB promotional materials
II. Sales Calls/Client
a. Make personal sales calls on a regular basis to key travel trade clients
b. Minimum of 7-10 sales calls per month
III. Strategic Direction
a. Participate in Strategic Direction meetings in San Antonio in development of the Marketing/Advertising/Media plans for Mexico
b. Ad Nova will attend two (2) meetings per year in San Antonio
c. Provide on-going support by sharing their market expertise to help inform marketing plans
IV. New Programs and Product Expansion
a. Initiate the development and coordinate two (2) creative marketing initiatives
b. Initiatives shall be directed to consumer with a key partner that will generate awareness as well as room nights for the destination
c. Potential partners include banks, airlines, tour operators, credit cards or retail
V. Consumer and Travel Trade Shows
a. Maintain visible presence on-site throughout each of the shows, to represent CVB's interest to all attendees
b. Provide assistance to any San Antonio delegates and/or industry partners
c. Attend all networking functions and provide CVB with a recap in monthly reports noting activities and includes a list of contacts made
VI. Media/Press Trips
a. 2-3 individual media trips
b. 2-3 group media trips
VII. Travel Trade/Educational (FAM) Trips
a. 2-3 individual travel trade trips
b. 2-3 group travel trade trips
VIII. Media and Industry Relations
a. Earned media goal of $2.0 million
ISSUE:
To assist in staying competitive within the hospitality/tourism industry and to increase awareness to our destination, the CVB is requesting authorization to award a professional services agreement to Ad Nova. If approved by City Council, the partnership with Ad Nova and the CVB would begin in October 2014.
This contract will be awarded in compliance with the Small Business Economic Development Advocacy (SBEDA) Program, which requires contracts be reviewed by a Goal Setting Committee to establish a requirement and/or incentive unique to the particular contract in an effort to maximize the amount of small, minority, and women-owned business participation on the contract. The Goal Setting Committee applied the Small Business Enterprise Prime Program with (10) evaluation preference points and Minority/Women-Owned Business Enterprise Prime Contract Program with (10) evaluation preference points. No evaluation preference points were awarded to Ad Nova as it is not a certified SBE or MWBE located within the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Local Preference Program was applied in the evaluation of responses received for this contract; however the highest ranked firm is not a local business.
There were no proposals submitted from veteran-owned small business respondents for this contract; therefore, the Veteran-Owned Small Business Preference Program was not applied.
ALTERNATIVES:
Alternatives to approving the agreement as presented with Ad Nova would be to approve the contract with changes in the scope of work, or to postpone or deny approval. Postponement or failure to approve this ordinance request will delay the opportunity to maximize awareness, number of visitors and visitor spending from Mexico visitors to San Antonio.
The CVB does not recommend any of these alternatives. The terms and conditions of this proposed agreement have met the expectations of the CVB in providing the City with foreign representative services in Mexico.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This ordinance authorizes the execution of a three-year Agreement with Ad Nova, with an option to renew for one additional two-year (2) term, in an amount not to exceed $100,000.00 per year for the first three years. The annual fee for the additional two-year renewal period will be negotiated in FY 2017 and such renewal period will be subject to City Council approval. Funds for the first year are available within the CVB FY 2015 Budget funded by the Hotel Occupancy Tax.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of the authorization to award a professional services agreement to Ad Nova for foreign representative services to assist the CVB in its marketing and tourism efforts in Mexico.