Title
Acceptance of the Tourism Strategic Plan and Consideration of an Ad Hoc Tourism Implementation Task Force
Recommended Action
I move to accept the Tourism Strategic Plan, appoint an Ad Hoc Tourism Implementation Task Force composed of tourism stakeholders and citizens, direct staff to return to Council with proposed members and charter of Task Force in the next 45 days.
County Manager's Recommendation
The County Manager recommends that Council approve the motion as presented.
Board, Commission or Committee Recommendation
The Tourism Work Group recommends acceptance of this plan and has submitted a letter of support (Attachment B).
Body
In January 2017, Council created the strategic priority goal, “Build the tourism economy.” Following this Council direction and as a result of a Request for Proposal (RFP) process, the County entered into a service agreement with Design Workshop, Inc. to provide tourism strategic planning services. The highlights of the agreement include five public forums, eight steering committee meetings, baseline analysis, creation/maintenance of project website and creation of strategic/action plan. Additionally, Council appointed a steering committee (now known as “Tourism Work Group”) consisting of 20 passionate and dedicated citizens including representatives from our attractions and NPS superintendents that serve as liaisons to the group. The Tourism Work Group (TWG) has met ten times throughout this process.
This item represents the culmination of an intense, eight month strategic planning process that began in May 2017. The planning process included the following:
--Reviewed over 60 reports and studies submitted by staff and TWG ranging from 2016 Comprehensive Plan to NM Tourism annual reports.
--Consultant convened four focus groups focusing on Downtown Vitality/Visitor Services; Recreation Attractions and Activities; Cultural Attractions and Events; and Economic Vitality Action Team (65 invited; 38 participated)
--Baseline Analysis report completed
--Two public forums held: 9/6/17 and 11/8/17; on-line survey also used as follow-up to September meeting
--Council presentations: October 2017 Work Session, December 19, 2017 Regular Session and February 2018 Work Session
--Creation of draft, Revision 2 and final Tourism Strategic Plan
In its final version, this Tourism Strategic Plan provides a strategic framework with goals and tactics that will guide and provide direction to the County as we optimize tourism economic development for the benefit of the community.
As a result of the recent discussion during the Council February Work Session, the Plan was revised. The description of changes made to Revision 2 of the Plan for the final version are described below:
--Addition of an introduction paragraph to the “Recommended Implementation Action Plan” in Chapter 4 that further describes that all actions are subject to change and those requiring funding would need approval from County Manager and County Council.
--Creation of Chapter 5 Next Steps which delineates the two lists of activities that staff would initially focus on and additional language to further explain that the items in the two lists were selected from the Implementation Action Plan in Chapter 4.
--To further show the relationship between the Recommended Implementation Action Plan items and the five Priority Areas, a column was added to table in Chapter 4 that shows which Priority Areas are supported by each proposed action item.
--To alleviate concerns about proposed dates in the Recommended Implementation Action Plan, all dates were reviewed and if funding was necessary, then the date for that action item was changed to “2019” or later.
The resulting final version of the Tourism Strategic Plan is shown in Attachment A.
If the Plan is accepted by Council, part of the motion will be to begin implementation of the plan by forming an Ad Hoc Tourism Implementation Task Force. This task force would be similar in nature as the White Rock Master Plan Implementation committee that was formed shortly after the acceptance of the White Rock Master Plan/Economic Development Strategy. Proposed charter and membership of this task force would be brought to Council separately.
Fiscal and Staff Impact/Planned Item
Once the Plan is accepted, funding for the implementation will be included in the FY2019 budget development process.
Attachments
A -Los Alamos Tourism Strategic Plan Final
B - Letter of Support from Tourism Work Group