1. REGULAR MEETING of the TOURISM COMMISSION BOARD April 10, 2024, at 2:30 pm City Hall Board & Commission Room 1101 301 W. Second St Austin, Texas 78701 Some members of the Tourism Commission Board may be participating by videoconference. The meeting may be viewed online at: http://www.austintexas.gov/page/watch-atxn-live Public comment will be allowed in-person or remotely via telephone. Speakers may only register to speak on an item once either in-person or remotely and will be allowed up to three minutes to provide their comments. Registration no later than noon the day before the meeting is required for remote participation by telephone. To register to speak remotely, call or email Felicia Ojeda, 512.404.4022 or felicia.ojeda@austintexas.gov CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS/COMMISSIONERS: Daniel Ronan, Chair Aileen Bazan Mike Cannatti Stefani Mathis John Riedie Bishop Chappell Ed Bailey, Vice Chair Greg Chanon Rachel Magee Anna Panossian Christian Tschoepe AGENDA CALL TO ORDER PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL The first 10 speakers signed up prior to the meeting being called to order will each be allowed a three-minute allotment to address their concerns regarding items not posted on the agenda. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Approve the minutes of the Tourism Commission Board Regular Meeting on March 13, 2024. STAFF BRIEFINGS 2. DISCUSSION ITEMS Staff briefing from Staff Liaison, Felicia Ojeda, regarding city clerk’s response to amount of recommendations per board, importance of Officer Elections, deadline for training requirements, and upcoming schedule changes for upcoming meetings. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 6. 7. Presentation by Neil Maris, General Manager of the Hot Luck Festival regarding the collaboration with the community and restaurant industry and how they are impacting and creating initiatives for tourism. Presentation by Katie Dorflinger, Brand Partnerships and Festival Producer, of C3 Presents regarding the Austin Food & Wine Festival and how this event engages with practitioners in the culinary industry of Austin creating tourism impact and initiatives. Presentation by Madison Gessner, Executive Director of the Central-South Texas Region, Texas Restaurant Association, regarding food and beverage and the culinary industry in Austin to present about different aspects of the industry and importance it creates for tourism impact and initiatives. Presentation by Cara Bertron, Program Manager of the Planning Department regarding the Equity-Based Preservation Plan and requesting the Tourism Commission Boards feedback on their recommendation to city council. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS Approve a recommendation regarding the funding for Red River Cultural District, and other similar organizations like Zilker Theatre …
November 1-3, 2024 Last year’s lineup! 2 DAYS • 6,000 FANS • 20+ CHEF DEMOS • 60+ FEATURED RESTAURANTS DEMOGRAPHICS GENDER 28% MALE 72% FEMALE AGE 22% 21-34 35% 35-44 24% 45-54 15% 55-64 4% 65+ ANNUAL INCOME 4% < $75K 20% $75K-$149K 31% $150K-$249K 20% $250K-$499K 10% $500K+ 15% Prefer not to answer EDUCATION 2% High School 55% College 43% Masters / PhD DIGITAL DATA 308,948 Unique Views 200,118 Sessions 1:11 (min:sec) Avg. Session duration 1.99 Pages per session 398,986 Total Page Views 2,378 Around the Park Page Views 5,905 Partner Page Views 38K+ FACEBOOK LIKES 21K+ TWITTER FOLLOWERS 39K+ INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS MARKET SPREAD Local Austin Dallas Houston San Antonio Top States Texas Illinois Iowa California Oklahoma Missouri Kansas Source Data, Google Analytics 11/7/22 – 11/6/23 “There’s a fun, choose-your-own-adventure element to the festival that leads to varied experiences for different guests. Those inclined to catch a glimpse of the big-name chefs can spend some of their days in the seminar tents, while others simply opt to drink and graze on food samples for the day.” -EATER AUSTIN SIP & SAVOR Austin Food + Wine treats guests to culinary creations from Austin’s top restaurants, bites from nationally renowned pit masters and chefs, Master Sommelier-led wine tastings, cocktail classes and so much more. From Central Texas favorites to the country’s top-rated purveyors, awaken your palate with delectable bites! Create the perfect pair when you sip from a wide selection of spirits, wines, and brews among views of the extraordinary Austin skyline. SERVING GOOD VIBES Discover your new favorite cocktail or restaurant in our Grand Taste exhibition. If a smorgasbord of spirits and culinary exhibitors isn’t enough, we host more than 60 esteemed restaurants from across the state serving dishes that put them on the map. Chefs are hand-smoking and hand-serving feasts of the most mouthwatering eats you can imagine. DEMOS & SEMINARS In addition to sampling unique eats from the nation's top-rated talent, get some tips to earn that extra Michelin Star for your home kitchen with our Chef Demos! Then get bubbly at a Tasting Session and sample premier spirits, wines, and beers from across the globe while learning the distillation processes behind them. FIRE PIT Our Fire Pit features bites hot off the flames and the chance to interact with pitmasters and chefs cooking over live fire. Enjoy exceptional BBQ and other dishes cooked over open flame and …
TOURISM COMMISSION | APRIL 10, 2024 Austin History Center (C05767, PICA 24201, PICA 29995); Chen Chen Wu; City of Austin Plan Vision Historic preservation in Austin actively engages communities in protecting and sharing important places and stories. Preservation uses the past to create a shared sense of belonging and to shape an equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and economically vital future for all. Joe’s Bakery, anonymous, Amy Moreland/ Austin’s Atlas Community-Based Process Historic Landmark Commission Michelle Benavides Ursula A. Carter Linda Y. Jackson Brenda Malik Emily Payne Gilbert Rivera 1 Brita Wallace* 1 Justin Bragiel 2 Mary Jo Galindo* Meghan King* Alyson McGee 1 Rocio Peña-Martinez* JuanRaymon Rubio 2 Bob Ward 1 Noel Bridges Jerry Garcia 1 Jolene Kiolbassa 1 Debra Murphy 2 Misael Ramos* Maria Solis* 1 Caroline Wright 1 *Drafting Committee member 1 Phase 1 only 2 Phase 2 only Julia Brookins* Ben Goudy 2 Kevin Koch Robin Orlowski 2 Mary Reed* 1 Erin Waelder Amalia Carmona 2 Hanna Huang* 1 Kelechi Madubuko Leslie Ornelas 1 Lori Renteria 1 Equity-Based Preservation Plan REVIEWING THE DRAFT Neal Douglass, Oct. 1949, ND-49-346-02, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. Draft Plan Goals 1. Tell Austin’s full history 9. Proactively identify important places 2. Recognize cultural heritage 10. Follow good designation practices 3. Preserve archaeological resources 11. Support stewardship of community 4. Stabilize communities assets 5. Support environmental sustainability 12. Be strategic with review 6. Engage communities equitably 13. Protect historic resources 7. Support people doing the work 14. Implement the plan collaboratively 8. Engage new partners What We Preserve Parade and mural unveiling (The Austin Chronicle), San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation Think broadly. • Recognize Austin’s rich and complex history through active listening, inclusive research, and interpretation • Better recognize and protect legacy businesses, murals, and archaeological resources • Use preservation tools to support community stabilization and environmental sustainability Who Preserves Invite and support. • Help people access knowledge, resources, and decision-making power • Streamline and explain historic review and designation processes • Support craftspeople, commissioners, and staff • Engage new partners and audiences San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation, Bertha Rendon Delgado, Austin Asian American Film Festival How We Preserve Be strategic and effective. • Update designation criteria to reflect modern standards • Support the stewards of Austin’s historic properties • Be strategic with review • Improve enforcement processes • Implement the plan collaboratively Especially Relevant Recommendations • Create a cultural …
MAY 23RD-26TH, 2024 BENEFITING HOT LUCK FEST | AUSTIN, TEXAS 2 ABOUT Austin is home to Hot Luck, where groundbreaking and genre-bending chefs from across the country—both emerging and established—set the stage for a weekend of live food and music events in dramatic, unforgettable environments. Hot Luck is where industry friendships and relationships are forged, and original, astonishing food is served nightly by restaurant teams from across the country to guests from around the world. Hot Luck is a hungry love letter to the city of Austin, launched in 2017 in collaboration with world- class food, music, and cultural scenes and the brainchild of pitmaster and author Aaron Franklin; Guerilla Suit owner and man about town James Moody; and Feast Portland co-founder Mike Thelin. Hot Luck is proud to benefit the Southern Smoke Foundation. In the last six years, Hot Luck has welcomed some of the world’s coolest chefs, influential media and inspiring brands to Austin every Memorial Day weekend for four days of food, music and fun. We like to think of ourselves as the backyard BBQ of food and music festivals–a place where participants and guests are excited to gather and celebrate what they love most about the worlds of food and music in a city that celebrates creativity, originality and good times. See you at Hot Luck in 2024 HOT LUCK FEST | AUSTIN, TEXAS 5 HOT LUCK FEST | AUSTIN, TEXAS 3 2023 Attendance 2023 Miscellaneous 12,000 ENTERTAINED 56% MALE 70% TEXAN 44% FEMALE 74% 25-44 IN AGE 1,200 CINDER BLOCKS USED TO BUILD FIRE PITS 1,450 LBS. BUTTER 150,000 SMILES 15,760 CANS OF RAMBLER 5,500 TORTILLAS MADE ONSITE 2400 HAWAIIAN ROLLS 850 LBS. BISON 16 LBS. CAVIAR 2,000 CHICKEN WINGS 14 BEARD WINNERS 42 FRYERS 59 PLANCHAS 25,000+ HIGH FIVES 150+ VOLUNTEERS 1,300 EARS OF CORN 1,243 LOBSTER ROLLS 1 ROVING GREEN ROOM FOR CHEFS 175+ CULINARY STUDENTS HOT LUCK FEST | AUSTIN, TEXAS HOT LUCK FEST | AUSTIN, TEXAS 4 4 2023 Media SOCIAL MEDIA PAID MEDIA 2.2M+ ORGANIC IMPRESSIONS 3.1M+ PAID ADVERTISING EARNED MEDIA 494M IMPRESSIONS NEWSLETTER 57% OPEN RATE We look forward to this event every year! Aaron does such a great job of bringing the best to Austin. Great food, great music, and most of all, great people. We’re so honored that Aaron and the Hot Luck team has chosen Southern Smoke as its beneficiary, and we are so grateful for …
CITY OF AUSTIN TOURISM COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION Recommendation Number: 20240410-007: This set of recommendations from the Tourism Commission identify improvements to the cultural arts funding programs that will support long- standing tourism destinations in Austin with histories of diversity, equity and inclusion. WHEREAS, City of Austin is recognized for its vibrant cultural arts scene and a diverse and creative community, with a decades-long history as the cultural and counter-cultural capital of Texas which enjoys the competing mantras of “'Keep Austin Weird” and the “Live Music Capital of the World”; and WHEREAS, on June 25, 2018, Austin City Council adopted ORDINANCE NO. 20180614-067, establishing the Tourism Commission “to provide expertise and recommendations to the city council concerning hotel occupancy tax revenue collected by the city and issues related to and that promote tourism” and to “advise the city council on … matters relating to the allocation, investment, and budgets for the hotel occupancy tax revenue”; and WHEREAS Texas Tax Code Chapter 351, Section 351.101 (a) states that “Revenue from the municipal hotel occupancy tax may be used only to promote tourism and the convention and hotel industry”; and WHEREAS, Austin’s tourism industry actively uses our cultural arts and live music events to promote tourism to Austin, as readily seen from Visit Austin’s website cultural events listings, including the Red River Cultural Arts District, the Zilker Theater Productions and other longstanding groups that support professional artistic jobs, generate tourism and serve audiences of both visitors and residents; and WHEREAS, the City of Austin’s cultural arts funding grant programs have made necessary changes in recent years to address historic inequities; and WHEREAS, these changes to cultural arts funding allocations do not fully account for a range of equitable considerations, such as the diversity of the audiences who enjoy the cultural arts programs or the artists who perform in the cultural arts programs, resulting in significant disruptions to long-standing cultural institutions in our community which have a demonstrated history of positive tourism impact, as well as diverse, inclusive and equitable curatorial, hiring and audience development practices; and WHEREAS, on February 15, 2024 City Council passed a resolution directing the City Manager to investigate ways to preserve accessible, inclusive, open‐to‐the‐public events and to identify opportunities for the City to support and promote community events which are completely free and open to the public, which would include events produced by Zilker Theater Productions, Austin Shakespeare and the …
AUSTIN TOURISM COMMISSION Wednesday, April 10, 2024 Madison A. Gessner TRA Executive Director Central-South Region AGENDA AUSTIN TOURISM COMMISSION Wednesday, April 10, 2024 Texas Restaurant Industry Austin Who is TRA Why TRA TEXAS RESTAURANT INDUSTRY AUSTIN • There are roughly 5,100 restaurants in the Greater Austin Metropolitan Statistical Area and over 3,400 in Travis County. • There are also approximately 132k food service employees in the Austin MSA. PROTECT ADVANCE EDUCATE ADVOCACY QUESTIONS
TOURISM COMMISSION BOARD RECOMMENDATION Recommendation Number: 20240410-007 These recommendations from the Tourism Commission identify improvements to the cultural arts funding programs that will support long-standing tourism destinations in Austin with histories of diversity, equity, and inclusion. WHEREAS, City of Austin is recognized for its vibrant cultural arts scene and a diverse and creative community, with a decades-long history as the cultural and counter-cultural capital of Texas which enjoys the competing mantras of “'Keep Austin Weird” and the “Live Music Capital of the World”; and WHEREAS, on June 25, 2018, Austin City Council adopted ORDINANCE NO. 20180614-067, establishing the Tourism Commission “to provide expertise and recommendations to the city council concerning hotel occupancy tax revenue collected by the city and issues related to and that promote tourism” and to “advise the city council on … matters relating to the allocation, investment, and budgets for the hotel occupancy tax revenue”; and WHEREAS Texas Tax Code Chapter 351, Section 351.101 (a) states that “Revenue from the municipal hotel occupancy tax may be used only to promote tourism and the convention and hotel industry”; and WHEREAS, Austin’s tourism industry actively uses our cultural arts and live music events to promote tourism to Austin, as readily seen from Visit Austin’s website cultural events listings, including the Red River Cultural Arts District, the Zilker Hillside Theater Productions and other longstanding groups that support professional artistic jobs, generate tourism and serve audiences of both visitors and residents; and WHEREAS, the City of Austin’s cultural arts funding grant programs have made necessary changes in recent years to address historic inequities; and WHEREAS, these changes to cultural arts funding allocations do not fully account for a range of equitable considerations, such as the diversity of the audiences who enjoy the cultural arts programs or the artists who perform in the cultural arts programs, resulting in significant disruptions to long-standing cultural institutions in our community which have a demonstrated history of positive tourism impact, as well as diverse, inclusive and equitable curatorial, hiring and audience development practices; and WHEREAS, on February 15, 2024 City Council passed a resolution directing the City Manager to investigate ways to preserve accessible, inclusive, open‐to‐the‐public events and to identify opportunities for the City to support and promote community events which are completely free and open to the public, which would include events produced by Zilker Theater Productions, Austin Shakespeare and the Red River Cultural District, …
