Destination[CC1] Hilliard

2016 2017 Strategic Plan

Mission Statement

To cultivate a positive economic impact for Hilliard through business, leisure and sports experiences as a Destination Marketing Organization(DMO) while supporting Ohio’s tourism industry.

Vision

Create a friendly, hometown atmosphere where everyone feels welcomed and wants to return.

Purpose

  1. Showcasethe community of Hilliard and the opportunities it provides for culture, sports, and social interactions.
  2. InformHilliard residents about restaurants, shopping, attractions and events in our own community.
  3. Position our community to attract conventions, sporting events and other conferences.

Background

Statute requires 25% of total bed tax collected in Hilliard be spent on tourism promotion. Tourism is an economic generator.Organized properly, attractions,activities, events, conferences, meetingsand sporting events can reinforce efforts to recruit new businesses and entrepreneurs to the community as well as bring visitors who spend their money in the community. Tourism increases the tax base that helps pay for community amenities and services. Tourism diversifies the economy so that communities are no longer dependent on one or two industries for job creation.

Today’s visitor may just be tomorrow’s investor. Sometimes business managers and owners first discover an area as a location for one of their business operations through a recreational visit to an area for golf, conference, meeting, sporting event, or participation in a local fair and or other events. Tourism development is especially important to downtown revitalization efforts.Destination Hilliard should look for these types of synergy between its tourism, businesses, attractions and downtown revitalization efforts.

The marketplace is full of choices for visitors and residents creating a competition among cities, communities and states to attract visitors. Therefore it is imperative to prepare a long term strategic plan in coordination with the City of Hilliard Comprehensive Plan and the need for Destination Hilliard to have a good marketing foundation. Through thestrategic plan,board members and the director should look at: What is Our Strategic Position? What are the industry trends that are impacting the community of Hilliard? What is our competition for attracting visitors? Are we gaining or losing our share? Are our services emerging or maturing? Is and hHow often is our message reaching our potential customers? What forums do we have to host tournaments and events? Are we informing the community of events and attractions happening in their own back yard.

Opportunities and Challenges

  1. City of Hilliard commissioned a hotel study in late 2014. City of Hilliard administration and City Council are continuing their efforts to recruit hotel(s). This is a challenge due to available lots and zoning. Hilliard faces challenges when attracting conferences and athletic events with no full service hotel.

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  1. Any entity utilizing city resources should be required to promote Hilliard hotels.

3.Hilliard faces challenges when attracting conferences and athletic events with no full service hotel.

  1. High quality events and tournaments require years of advance planning. Budgets are determined on an annual basis however events, tournaments and conferences are booked two to three years in advance which limits Destination Hilliard’s ability to make long term strategic commitments.
  2. Collaboration among several political subdivisions, local businesses, non-profits, schools and constituency groups is difficult.
  3. Currently, only 66.4% think Hilliard is a great place to visit.
  4. Currently, only 62% of residents are aware of Destination Hilliard and its mission.
  5. Bo Jackson Elite Sports Facility, new City of Hilliard Recreation and Parks Master Plan, enlarged Ten Pin Alley, proximity to Dublin and Columbus, new and more events and high favorability among residents is leading Hilliard to great growth potential.

Audience

  1. Sports Organizers: Hilliard is home to a number of facilities and venues including the new Bo Jackson Elite Sports Facility that create opportunities to host sporting tournaments and events.
  2. Companies/BusinessTravelers:The expansion of corporate business partners located in the area creates opportunities for business travelers to need lodging and other amenities when visiting.
  3. Leisure Travelers: Visitors support area businesses and contribute to the hotel lodging tax and local economy.
  4. Group Tour Organizers: Group tours mostly consist of day trippers that visit area attractions especially the baby boomers and inbetweeners who have retired and have expendable income. The two largest attractions are the Early Television Museum and the Historical Village at Weaver Park.

5. Hilliard Residents: Residents can be our biggest ambassadors. to assist in acquiring family and class reunions.

Return on Investment, ROI

Performance reporting is crucial to communicating the role and relevancy of a Destination Marketing Organizations such as Destination Hilliard to its stakeholders (elected officials, hotels, attractions, restaurants and residents). Effective reporting delivers not only a tremendous opportunity to tell a positive story, but also a key resource management tool for guiding marketing decisions and staff development.

As in most cities, Destination Hilliard is a Destination Marketing Organization acting as a steward of public funds, and requires fiduciary responsibility including consistent and transparent performance reporting. Destination Hilliard has adopted industry standards in recognizing benchmarks for assessing internal performance and identifying opportunities for success. Month by month numbers are reported to the board.

Objectives and Strategies

  1. To attract visitors and generate visitor spending to create a positive economic impact for Hilliard by booking events and tournaments.
  1. Tactics:

1.)Promote facilities to host corporate meetings, reunions, conventions and group tours to host corporate meetings, reunions, and conventions and group tours including new in 2017 the Hilliard Civic and Cultural Arts Center, Coffee Connections Annex and Stomping Grounds

2.)Outreach to schools including athletic directors, counselors, and administration and other civic organizations to promote community events which draws visitors such as graduation, band invitational and other events. In addition, work with schools, seniors, organizations and businesses on volunteer opportunities such as Lend A Hilliard Hand

3.)Dependent on funding accessibility, continue recommendations from sports consultant (web based sports calendar, membership to National Association Sports Commission, VIP Coupon Sheet, Customer Service, Certified Tourism Ambassador Training Workshop, Destination Marketing Organization Assessment).

4.)3.)Target athletic and academic competitions based upon availability at fairgrounds and, Hilliard YYMCA, HOSA Soccer Complex, Bo Jackson Elite Sports Facility, Ten Pin Alley and Hilliard Civic and Cultural Arts Center.

5.)4.)Identify and outreach to organizers of multi day events that have a significant economic impact.

  1. Performance and Activity Measures:

1.)Number of bids

2.)Number of Tradeshows exhibited

3.)Number of events including total participants

4.)Lost opportunities due to dates not available at hotels, lack of hotel interest, no full service hotel, no convention or sports facility available and internal politics or political/organizational conflict.

  1. To increase leisure visitor volume, spending and economic impact in Hilliard through the promotion of Hilliard’s travel products.
  1. Tactics:

1.)Produce yearly Visitors Guide as required under Ohio Revised Code for use of promoting Hilliard via bed tax dollars. The guide will be available online and distributed to other Convention and Visitors Bureaus, Travel Information Centers, Ohio Travel Pavilion and requests through advertisements.

2.) Continue to promote and attractFamily, and Class Reunions and weddings.

3.)Collaborate with Experience Columbus, Columbus Sports Commission and other Convention and Visitors Bureaus to secure overflow of large events to Hilliard hotels (Quarter Horse Congress, Arnold Classic, Memorial Tournament, etc.).

  1. Performance and Activity Measures:

1.)Number of Visitors Guides distributed via requests

2.)Number of Travel Shows exhibited

3.)Number of co-op partners participating

4.)Number of reunions, weddings and other client events that request visitors guides and assistance

  1. To increase visitor volume, spending and economic impact for Hilliard by raising awareness and preferenceto visitors and residents.
  1. Tactics:

1.)Destination Hilliard will promote all businesses and organizations located in Hilliard. Destination Hilliard will promote events taking place in Hilliard that are open to the public.

2.)Increase awareness of Hilliard as a destination which results in new events, activities, exhibits and tournaments.

3.)Promote Hilliard App as the comprehensive location to find information on Hilliard.

3.)4.)Create Continue to updatea online master calendar of community events and secure advertisement in appropriate media (State of Ohio, Experience Columbus, Franklin County Events, etc.).

4.)5.)Enhance, maintain and promote Destination Hilliard website as the place to log onto for information on the community of Hilliard.

5.)6.)CreateContinue to produce and distribute monthly Event E-Newsletters and grow audience by 10%. All E-Newsletters and direct e-mail marketing will offer recipient easy way to unsubscribe.

6.)7.)IncreaseSocial Media (Facebook, Linked-In, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram) interactions promotingHilliard by 20%.

7.)8.)Grow and maintain a photograph library.in coordination with city of Hilliard and community organizations

8.)9.)Produce bi-annual Discover Hilliard Magazine in an effort to educate residentsso they become ambassadors to attract visitors and events.

9.)10.)Engage and educate regional and local officials, industry partners and business members on events in the Hilliard community.

10.)11.)Provide Hilliard City Council quarterly reports of accomplishments and financial statements emphasizing economicimpact and return on investment.

11.)12.)Be a leadership voice for improving quality of Hilliard’s reputation as a destination.

12.)13.)Support Hilliard organizations in planning and promoting events.

13.)14.)DevelopContinue to and sponsor economic impact breakfast with awards.hile recognizing community volunteers

14.)15.)Identify and connect organizations and businesses to resources - act as a connector.

15.)16.)Serve as a liaison between Heritage Ohio and localOld Hilliard businesses.

16.)17.)Be a supportive partner of public and private investments that add to tourism industry.

  1. Performance and Activity Measures:

1.)Number of E-Newsletter distributed.

2.)Number of Visitors Guides requested.

3.)Number of Website – unique page views on website.

4.)Social Media – Number of Facebook posts, Number of tweets, Number of videos posted, Number of photos posted.

5.)Number of Press Releases Distributed.

6.)Number of Media Interviews.

  1. To prepare and submit application for Destination Marketing Accreditation Program
  1. Tactics:

1.)Develop aReview Human Resources Manual that complies with all government labor and employment laws.

2.)Develop an e-mail and internet usage policy.

3.)Add network security policy to current records retention policy.

4.)Develop a Crisis Communication Plan.

5.)Participate in periodic destination development assessment for infrastructure needs

  1. Performance and Activity Measures:

1.)Complete Readiness Checklist

2.)Submit Application for Destination Marketing Accreditation Program

  1. To create and address environmental aspects of sustainable tourism development
  1. Tactics:

1.)Begin to identify best practices of other cities that have prioritized sustainable tourism as an economic growth catalyst.

2.)Identify local businesses, and larger corporations with a local presence, who prioritize sustainability and then begin to consider how those businesses could be promoted to tourists.

3.)Begin Develop checklist of ideas on becoming more environmentally friendly. Look into creating badge.discussions with hotels regarding their sustainability practices and how those could be expanded and improved. Certification for environmental sustainability practices could be a promotional tool for the hotel and for Destination Hilliard in attempting to attract ecologically minded tourists and potentially environmental conferences if available

4.)Partner with city government and schools to create and promote sustainable practices and projects that could become attractions to tourists.

5.)Create and develop Hilliard Sustainability Expo.

B. Performance and Activity Measures:

1.) Number of hotel survey responses

2.) Number of checklists distributed

3.) Number of participants in Hilliard Sustainability Expo

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