CALLING ALL BALL COOKS. THE ANNUAL OYSTER FRY NEEDS YOU!

TRIC IS BEGINNING TO KICK IN THE LIONS SHARE OF THE TRANSIENT LODGING TAX

THERE IS A “POSTING CRITERIA” PROCESS FOR MERCHANTS TO USE WHEN ASKING RAD STRATEGIES TO HELP THEM WITH PROMOTIONS

Nicole Barde

bardeblog.com

You can find the entire meeting packet HERE.

The VCTC Board allows for public comment at the beginning of the meeting and for that we are very grateful. If only the County Commissioners would be as respectful of peoples time.

During the Financial update, Executive Director Deny Dotson noted that the Transient Lodging tax was on track and was up $15K over last year. There is a new table on this report which shows the break out between the VC properties and the TRIC properties. Something to note is that the rooms at the Mustang Ranch count towards the room availability and revenues. As of this report, which goes thru December 2018, TRIC contributed 68% of the Transient Room tax with almost double the occupancy rate. Someone asked if the Mustang is responsible for that and the answer was a swift “NO”.

The high occupancy rate at TRIC has been due to long stays and the steady stream of contractors at TRI who need lodging for those projects. Additionally, when I80 is shut down for whatever reason some folks just get off and spend the night until it opens.

Deny made the comment that the VCTC may do a bit of advertising for the current motel property, Studio 6. I asked Deny if the VCTC is responsible for promoting the properties out at TRIC. There was a bit of discussion and Board Chair Corrado DeGasparis said that he would need to look into what exactly the VCTC Charter covers. Whether its charter is for VC promotion and tourism only or encompasses visitation to the entire county.

The Tourism Tax is also up over the budgeted amount and is over by $18k from last year for November. There is no breakout between VC and TRIC for this since the Department of Taxation is unable to do the breakout.  Deny stated that he will do a quarterly update of this year’s budget at the next VCTC meeting in March.

Deny showed the video that was shown at “Tourism Day” at the legislature.

It was well done but you can’t see it here since a link to the video wasn’t included.

It looks like the Comstock got a great deal of exposure with the Fourth Ward School and Gold Hill getting highlighted among other Comstock footage. The VCTC will utilize it as part of its promotional efforts as appropriate.

The Marketing Update was as usual except for two items. The first was the updated “Visit Virginia City” video.

It’s quite nice but a link to the video wasn’t included so you can’t see it here.

The second thing was a very detailed process for merchants and others to “post” their event or happening thru the VCTC. The merchants had asked if VCTC/RAD could help to post some of their own small community-based events and this is in response to that. It covered how the VCTC will post your stuff on all Social Media, the criteria for what they will post and what your responsibility is.

I’d show it to you but nothing was provided to the attendees and there is no link to it so you can’t see it here.

VCTC and RAD are planning to do a presentation to the merchants on this process in March. Date TBD.

Liquid Blue reported that the January saloon crawl did pretty decent numbers despite the blizzard. Altho pre-sales were up over last year, the attendance was down about 20.

They are finalizing the Oyster Fry on March 16^th and they still need cooks. This is one of our biggest events and people come for the BALLS. The number of cooks has been in decline over the years and without those cooks…there are NO BALLS. So, if you know someone, are someone or want to be someone who cooks BALLS…let Deny know.

The final numbers for the 2018 Camel Races were about flat to the budget. The Net was +$8145 vs the budgeted +$8381.

The Outhouse Races were a disappointment. Revenues came in lower than budget and the Net loss was $4204 versus the $780 projects loss. The loss in 2017 was $328. LB is looking at ways to fix this going forward.

Christmas on the Comstock came in just slightly under budget. It was projected to Net $281 and the actual Net was $235. This has a lot of potential to be a big event and the VCTC and LB have ideas for expansion for 2019.

If you want to have input please come to the meetings as they roll these ideas out

Lastly, the Chili on the Comstock budget was approved. It is budgeted to have a Net of $2420.

Deny reported that the International Mining Competition is on track for March 20-23 and it looks like all lodging is booked. Lots of people coming for this one and they love snow!

Alexia Sober from the Merchant Community Coalition updated the Board that she is working with a videographer who is shooting “B” roll around Virginia City to be used in merchant developed promotions for their events and establishments. It will be used on the merchant website that Sam Toll is developing as well as other broadcast and social media outlets.