Tc Convention & Visitor'S Bureau

“Memberships of the visitors bureau consists of area businesses that operate within the local tourism industry.”

“The visitors bureau consists of business members that elect among themselves individuals to participate on the board of directors.”

“Form 990 is reviewed by the executive director when presented by the bureau's auditing and tax preparation firm and made available to members of the board upon request.”

“Conflicts of interest are reviewed annually as well as on an as needed basis during a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board.”

“Upon the completion of each year, the board of directors selects a compensation review committee that evaluates the organization's performance, as determined by the audited financial statements, against the goals and financial objectives as defined by the board. The results of this evaluation help determine the compensation of the executive director.”

“The board approves the annual operating budget which includes a review of staff compensation costs. For staff positions, the executive director evaluates compensation in comparison with information provided by "destination marketing association international- and the "michigan association of convention and visitors bureaus".”

“No documents available to the public.”

“A bulk of our marketing efforts are in the leisure travel market. We market to different demographics depending on the time of year. For example, in spring, fall and winter we target gen-x and boomers as well as millennials. In summer, we target millennials and families. Primarily we promote wine and culinary offerings, outdoor recreation, events, golf and sleeping bear dunes; secondary promotions include shopping, entertainment, and casinos. We take a dichotomous approach to marketing-- pointing out that visitors can enjoy both an indoor and outdoor experiances in one trip. Traverse city tourism has a robust meeting, group sales and services department. Our goal is to attract meetings in off peak times for our hotels, both meeting and select service properties, from within the state, regionally and nationally. Target markets include state, regional and national associations, corporate, smerf (social, military, education, religious, and fraternal), sports, and group tour. Our main focus is our "drive markets" including michigan, illinois, indiana, ohio, and some parts of pennsylvania for our spring, fall and winter marketing. We promote to fly-in markets by expanding promotions to include atlanta, new york, denver, dallas, minneapolis, charlotte, washington, phoenix, and several markets in florida. We are also a part of a marketing partnership known as discover northern michigan which includes the cvb's of gaylord, charlevoix, petoskey, and mackinac island. This is a cooperative marketing partnership in cooperation with travel michigan, to help promote to the dallas area which has a direct flight to traverse city's cherry capital airport in the summer months. We also have a national and international awareness compaign with pure michigan.”

“We use google analytics, adara, smith travel research and other analytics from vendors to track our marketing efforts. One of the best indicators of effectiveness is monitoring our monthly assessment collection to analyze year-over-year revenues. We partner with other organizations, particularly around events and air travel, to collect data from their visiting user groups. We also seek out anecdotal information from our members to help determine what they are observing and to corroborate the data with personal experiences and member data.”